He’s taught about 3,000 students, recovered from a multiple stabbing, and successfully coached school and national hockey teams.

Now Dafydd ‘Dai’ Hermann-Smith, 65, is retiring from Saltus Grammar School, where he has worked for the last 34 years.

However, he will leave a lasting legacy because he is setting up a needs-based scholarship for a graduating female student to go to university.

“So many young Bermudians do not have the funds to go to college, it frustrates me. Therefore, the scholarship that has been agreed is for a graduating Saltus student who is in need of financial assistance,” said Mr Hermann-Smith.

“There are two other restrictions, the student must be female and have made a significant contribution to sport in the school.”

He began life at Saltus as Teacher of Economics and Geography and eventually became Head of Economics, Business and Accounts which became one of the largest departments in the Secondary Department.

He has also been Head of House, Head of Year, Year Coordinator, Assistant Examinations Officer, Careers Officer and Teacher in Charge of Work Experience and Work Shadowing.

“In the early 2000s I declined the position of Deputy Head of the Senior School (now called the Secondary Department) realising that it would take me out of the classroom and away from my students,” said Mr Hermann-Smith.

He estimates that he has taught somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 students. “The students have sat 655 Advanced Placement Examinations, over 100 A Level Examinations and well over 1,000 O level or GCSE Examinations.”

Sport has played a big part in Mr Hermann-Smith’s life — coaching cricket and hockey at Saltus up to 2011. The girls’ team did so well they ended up having two teams: one in the A League and one in the B League of the Bermuda Hockey Federation for 18 years.

“Over that time, 162 girls from Saltus represented Swifts Hockey Club. Thirty of these Swifts have gone on to play for the Bermuda Senior National Team, 38 for the Bermuda Under 21 Team and 11 for the Bermuda Under 17 team,” he said.

In April, 1999, Mr Hermann-Smith was stabbed multiple times by a robber who broke into his house in Devonshire. Mr Hermann-Smith tackled the would-be robber and was stabbed as the assailant tried to escape.

He was hospitalised and in a critical condition for a few days, but was back at school as soon as he could. The criminal was brought to justice.

“What stands out? This may seem odd, but the outstanding memory comes from April 1999 when I was in hospital after being stabbed multiple times,” he added.

“There were some students waiting at the hospital to find out whether I would survive the stab wounds or not. Of course I was unconscious and on the operating table, I bore no pain, but the distress those students went through was to me so very powerful.

“The night after the incident I vaguely, through a morphine haze, remember a group of students visiting (briefly) my room in the hospital. Finally I was amazed at the number of flowers that were sent to my hospital room by past and present students.”