A top architect with a passion for sports as well as the arts was a lover of cinema who became one of the driving forces behind the Bermuda International Film Festival.

David O’Beirne’s handiwork could be seen in buildings across the island, from the Salvation Army Citadel to Miles Market in Hamilton. He was the lead architect on the expansion of the Marriott Castle Harbour Hotel, as it was then, in the 1980s.

Gifted and humorous, Mr O’Beirne belonged to the non-profit group and high IQ society Mensa.

In 1997, the keen cinephile teamed up with BIFF general manager Aideen Ratteray Pryse and a host of other volunteers to launch the instantly popular festival.

Mr O’Beirne served as a director and later became programme director.

Although he took deep pride in his Scottish heritage, Mr O’Beirne was also very proud to be Bermudian.

Penny Glendinning, his wife, said: “David was spiritually Bermudian. This was his adopted country, and he loved everything about it.”

Born in Inverness, Mr O’Beirne went on to live in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, where he studied at Heriot-Watt University and earned a bachelor’s degree with honours in architecture.

Ms Glendinning said: “He was truly an amazing person. I met him when I was in high school in London. To qualify as an architect, you do three years getting work experience. He came to Croydon and worked in the student training office, which is how we met.

“For 47 years I have known David, 36 of them married. It’s a huge loss.”

She said Mr O’Beirne loved windsurfing, golf and tennis, but tried out “everything”, such as skiing.

He also had a passion for football, and was devoted to Scotland’s Heart of Midlothian Football Club, known as Hearts.

Mr O’Beirne came to the island in the early 1980s after hearing through a friend — a fellow Scot and an architect — that Bermuda was booming with new buildings.

Ms Glendinning followed him to the island and the couple found it “an amazing place”.

They were married in Edinburgh in 1988 and their daughter, Madison, was born in 1992.

Although he was devoted to architecture and took a deep interest in it wherever they travelled, his wife said Mr O’Beirne came with particularly wide-ranging tastes.

“David was very humble, kind, funny and passionate about everything,” she said.

“He studied film part-time and took courses when he was working in London.

“It was an interest that led to a casual conversation with good friends such as Aideen and others, and they started the festival.

“If David was not doing something with architecture, he was doing something with film, and he was crazy about music.

“Both of us loved punk — that was our era — and he and I went to see groups like Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Clash.

“He had incredibly eclectic tastes. He also liked Kylie Minogue and went to see her in concert.”

Colin Campbell, the head of the architectural firm OBMI and a past president of the Institute of Bermuda Architects, said they became friends after Mr O’Beirne came to work at Cooper Gardner 40 years ago.

They were later colleagues at the firm Derek Mitchell & Associates.

Mr Campbell said: “We would discuss architecture along with any number of things. David had a keen eye for art as well as architecture and film.”

The friendship continued when Mr Campbell moved to another firm.

“It was never competitive,” he said. “David was very, very interested in how the island was evolving, and he was a wonderful sounding board.”

In the 1990s, Mr O’Beirne was part of a team of architects dedicated to recording and preserving the structural details of some of the island's most valuable heritage properties.

When Mr Campbell started the firm CBE, Mr O’Beirne came to join him there, and in 1998, the business took up an offer to merge with OBMI.

The two worked together for nearly 15 years.

Mr Campbell said: “David was a man of charm, kindness and very interesting perspectives.

“A kind spirit was probably the most compelling thing for me. I never saw him raise to anger over anything.

“He worked very hard on the film festival — he loved it — and he had a great taste in music. He was a real renaissance fellow.”

• David Crawford O’Beirne, a prominent architect and one of the driving forces behind the Bermuda International Film Festival, was born on June 30, 1955. He died on October 7, 2024, aged 69