Gordon Arthur Cyril "Butch" Stewart
OJ CD (6 July 1941 – 4 January 2021) was a Jamaican
hotelier and businessman. He was the founder, owner, and chairman of
Sandals Resorts
Sandals Resorts is a Jamaican operator of All-inclusive resort, all-inclusive couples resorts in the Caribbean. The company is a part of Sandals Resorts International (SRI), which also operates Beaches Resorts, Fowl Cay Resort, and several privat ...
,
Beaches Resorts, and their parent company
Sandals Resorts International, as well as The ATL Group and its subsidiaries Appliance Traders and ''
The Jamaica Observer''.
Early life
Gordon Arthur Cyril Stewart was born on 6 July 1941 in
Kingston, Jamaica. He grew up along the country's north coast where he came to be known as "Butch", a nickname given to him by an American sailor. As a child, Stewart helped out at his mother's appliance dealership, and at 12, he bought a small canoe he used to catch fish and sell them to the local hotels.
He then bought a larger boat which he operated until age 17.
Career
After completing his education in England,
Stewart became a salesman and eventually rose to become the sales manager of Dutch-owned Curaçao Trading Company.
Stewart later left in 1968 to found his own business, Appliance Traders, Ltd. which specialized at first in importing and selling air conditioning units, water coolers, and stoves, but has grown to sell almost everything.
In April 1981, Stewart bought two derelict hotels, the Bay Roc and the Carlisle in
Montego Bay
Montego Bay () is the capital of the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of Saint James Parish, Jamaica, St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth most populous urban area in the country, after Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Spanish Town, and Portmore ...
.
The Bay Roc had been abandoned for more than five years when Stewart hired architect Evan Williams to renovate the hotel for $4 million and reopen it the same year as the Sandals Resort Beach Club, later known as Sandals Montego Bay. Stewart founded
Sandals Resorts
Sandals Resorts is a Jamaican operator of All-inclusive resort, all-inclusive couples resorts in the Caribbean. The company is a part of Sandals Resorts International (SRI), which also operates Beaches Resorts, Fowl Cay Resort, and several privat ...
.
Stewart is credited with several innovations in the hospitality industry, most notably building the Caribbean's first swim-up bar at Sandals Montego Bay Resort in Jamaica in 1984.
In 1985, Stewart opened his second hotel as the Sandals Carlisle which was followed the next year by Sandals Royal Caribbean, “the only resort in Jamaica with its own private island".
Over the next few years, Stewart expanded Sandals Resort to
Negril in 1988 and to
Ocho Rios in 1989. In 1991, he opened a second resort in Ocho Rios near the
Dunn's River Falls and also opened Sandals
Antigua
Antigua ( ; ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the local population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the most populous island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua ...
, his first resort outside Jamaica. He added two more resorts to the Sandals chain in
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. Part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), Saint Vincent ...
, Sandals La Toc and Sandals Halcyon Beach, which opened in 1993. Sandals Royal Bahamian in
Nassau opened in 1996 and, in 1997, Stewart started a second resort chain geared towards children and families with the opening of a
Beaches Resort in
Providenciales,
Turks and Caicos Islands
The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and no ...
.
Stewart also founded ''
The Jamaica Observer'' newspaper in January 1993 and, in 1994, started the Air Jamaica Acquisition Group to buy a majority stake in
Air Jamaica. The group paid $37.5 million for a majority share of the airline; of which, Stewart held a 46 percent stake and became the new chairman of Air Jamaica. Stewart's group sold their shares of the airline back to the Jamaican Government in 2004.
In November 2006, Stewart became chairman of Sandals and Beaches Resorts after appointing his son
Adam Stewart as CEO. In 2012, Stewart founded Sandals Corporate University, an adult education program for Caribbean nationals employed by Sandals Resorts, Beaches Resorts and Grand Pineapple Beach Resorts, provided in partnership by Canada-based
Ryerson University, Western Hospitality Institute of Jamaica, and the Jamaica Foundation for Life Long Learning. As of 2012, Stewart’s businesses employed more than 10,000 people in the Caribbean across various industries including hospitality, restaurant, automotive, retail, and media.
Personal life
Stewart had eight children; one of his sons, Jonathan, was killed in a car crash in 1990.
His son Brian Jardim sat on the board of ''The Jamaica Observer'' and is the owner of Rainforest Seafoods. His daughter Jamie Stewart-McConnell co-founded the juice company Orijin of Jamaica. His eldest son Robert “Bobby” Stewart held various leadership positions at Sandals including running the company's online division and UK operations.
Adam Stewart was deputy chairman of Sandals, CEO of The ATL Group and founded the Sandals Foundation while serving as CEO of Sandals Resorts from 2006 to 2012.
Stewart lived in Kingston and
Montego Bay
Montego Bay () is the capital of the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of Saint James Parish, Jamaica, St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth most populous urban area in the country, after Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Spanish Town, and Portmore ...
, Jamaica, with his girlfriend Cheryl, the mother of his younger three children: a set of twins, Kelly and Gordon, and a daughter, Sabrina.
Death
Stewart died in
Miami
Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
, United States, on 4 January 2021 at the age of 79. He had been suffering from an undisclosed illness. A private funeral service was held.
Honours and awards
Stewart received several accolades and awards including Jamaica's highest national distinctions:
Order of Jamaica, and Commander of the
Order of Distinction.
He received honorary
Doctor of Laws degrees from the
University of the West Indies
The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...
(2001) and from the
University of Technology, Jamaica (2009). He also received an honorary
Doctor of Business Administration degree from
Johnson & Wales University in 2011.
In 1992, Stewart was presented with the Dr Martin Luther King Jr Humanitarian Award from the Jamaica–America Society.
Ernst & Young
EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...
voted him Master Entrepreneur of the decade of the 90s. Stewart was a Paul Harris Fellow,
Rotary International
Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. The self-declared mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and p ...
's highest award. At the 2000 World Travel Awards, he was voted "Travel Man of the Millennium" for his work in promoting Caribbean tourism. In 2011, The Caribbean American Foundation presented Stewart with the Golden Eagle Humanitarian Award in recognition of his philanthropic contributions to education and entrepreneurship in the Caribbean. In 2014 Stewart was honored with the Most Innovative All-Inclusive Resort Executive by the Travalliance Travvy Awards, Hotelier of the Year at the Cacique Award held by the
Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation and the Invest Caribbean Now Leadership Award presented at its global summit.
Stewart was a recipient of ''Caribbean World'' Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in Jamaica,
and was referred to as one of Jamaica's most-admired businessmen by Kamal King, President of Cambridge College and Community Services Jamaica, in an address to graduating students.
He earned Lifetime Achievement Awards from The
American Academy of Hospitality Sciences, Travel Weekly and Globe Travel Awards.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Butch
1941 births
2021 deaths
Jamaican businesspeople
Jamaican people of English descent
Members of the Order of Jamaica
Commanders of the Order of Distinction