James "Jim" Manoah Bodden

Who is James "Jim" Manoah Bodden?

James 'Jim' Manoah Bodden was born in 1930 in Lower Valley, Bodden Town, Grand Cayman, and became the Cayman Islands' first officially declared National Hero. As a young man he emigrated to Texas, became a United States citizen, and worked a wide range of jobs, including as a private detective, a jewelry salesman, and the owner of a taxi company, before returning to the Cayman Islands in the 1960s to try his hand at the hotel business, an early venture that ultimately failed. He turned to public life instead, winning election to the Legislative Assembly in 1972 and going on to serve two terms on the Executive Council. As the minister responsible for tourism and aviation, he was a driving force behind the creation of Cayman Airways and the construction of Owen Roberts International Airport, infrastructure that helped transform the islands into a modern tourism and financial hub. Re-elected to the Legislature in 1984, he continued serving as a backbench member until his death in 1988. In September 1994 the Cayman Islands government named him its first National Hero, unveiling a statue of him at what is now Heroes Square, opposite the Legislative Assembly Building in George Town.

Sources: GOV.KY, National Heroes (official register) · Cayman Compass, "In praise of Cayman's finest" (2014) · Cayman Marl Road, biographical feature on James "Jim" Manoah Bodden (2016)