The Complex Building on Mahogany Street is now the Charles Bartlett Hyde Building. It was renamed this morning in honour of the veteran public servant who joined the public service as a messenger in 1940 and worked his way up to Postmaster General in 1962 – a post he held until his retirement in 1978. And though he officially retired in 1978, since then Hyde has served as Speaker of the House, he has chaired the Public Services Commission, and managed Krem Radio. And it is against that backdrop that government renamed the building in an honour of the now 85 year old Hyde who Prime Minister Dean Barrow described as the greatest living former public officer this country has.
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister of Belize
“The renaming of this building lays down a permanent marker of our appreciation for him and for all that he has done. Let us not forget that in addition to being this outstanding public officer, he has been a sportsman,
he has been a thinker, he has been a man of letters, he has been a man of affairs, please don’t misunderstand, public affairs.”
Charles B. Hyde,
“It is a great honour that my countrymen have seen fit to bestow on me and I am deeply moved and grateful to all who have been involved in naming this imposing building after me. I am almost persuaded by what they have said, that I might be deserving of this honour. America calls itself the land of opportunity and it is proud to declare that in that country a shoeshine boy could be president and now I can say that in Belize, a boy born on canal side can have an important public building named after him, while he is still alive.”
The Charles Bartlett Hyde building houses the Income Tax, Audit, Sales Tax, and Immigration Departments and the Passport Office and Bureau of Standards. 175 employees work in the building. Charles Bartlett Hyde is the father of Amandala Publisher Evan X Hyde.
