By Michael Morton
His death on March 15 came from complications after a fall, she said.Her husband, who was born in Costa Rica and raised on the island of Jamaica before emigrating, was instrumental in getting York built in southeast Queens, Daisy Bernard said. While administrators at the City University of New York were considering putting the campus in Bayside's Fort Totten or on the Glen Oaks golf course, Canute Bernard and others fought for the school.”It was an uphill battle,” Daisy Bernard said. “It took four years. He was one of the leaders of the pack.”Daisy Bernard worked for the South Jamaica Steering Committee, since disbanded, and it was there that she met her future husband as he and others in the organization toiled to obtain York. Finally, in 1968 Mayor John Lindsay awarded the school to Jamaica.Bernard said her husband's “type-A personality” had a lot to do with the successful effort, and he put it to use for other community projects as well. “He got things done,” she said with a laugh. “Everybody knew him for his 6 o'clock wake-up calls. He would wake everybody, including the borough president and the congressman.”In his professional life, Canute Bernard interned at Queens Hospital Center in Jamaica Estates before moving to the emergency room at Harlem Hospital, where he and a team of doctors helped save the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1958 after he was stabbed. He also served in the emergency room at Jamaica Hospital before becoming the medical director of the Workers' Compensation Board in the late 1970s. Bernard and other doctors worked to improve health care in southeast Queens with several community organizations in the 1960s. Before his death he was involved with the advisory council at York, the area's Community Board 12, the Jamaica Service Program for Older Adults, the Greater Jamaica Development Corp., the Southern Queens Park Association and Queens Hospital Center. He and his wife were also active in Jamaica's Greater Allen Cathedral.”He loved his community dearly,” Daisy Bernard said, adding that he also worked on projects throughout the city.Canute Bernard married Daisy Bernard in 1974 after his first wife died. Besides his widow, Bernard is survived by a son and daughter from his first marriage, a son from his second marriage, a stepdaughter, a stepson, a brother, a sister, five grandchildren, one great grandson and a nephew.Reach reporter Michael Morton by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
