Mr. Warren Where Is He Now
Mr. WarrenConolly in his magnificent home overlooking the sea in East End.
Talking with Mr. Warren Conolly of EastEnd is like seeing Cayman thirty years ago. It was a time whentourism was beginning to take off, television had not even beenintroduced to the island and Seven Mile Beach was well, mostlybeach.
"Hasten slowly" was Mr. Warren'smotto, and a method of development that he tried to instil inothers while working with the Tourist Board and while a memberof the Legislature.
He believed strongly in many ideas to dowith the development of the Island, and encountered some oppositionalong the way, which didn't deter him in the least. For instance,in the late 60s there was a proposal to put an oil refinery nearthe Turtle Farm, which he, being the lone Opposition Member inthe House, was successful in obtaining support from the IndependentMembers to voice strong opposition to the proposals.
The firm seeking the licence, took him andthe members of ExCo to The Bahamas to show them how an oil refinerycould fit well into an island's make-up. But Mr. Warren wouldnot be swayed. And the bid for an oil refinery in West Bay failed.
This kind of fighting spirit is still evidentin Mr. Warren, although he has calmed down as of late. He is nolonger directly involved in politics, although he knows enoughof the politicians to let them know his views. After 23 yearsin politics, much of it unpaid as he likes to point out, he can'treally leave it alone.
When asked where he likes to holiday, Mr.Warren just laughs. "Right here," he says, indicatinghis house and the view over East End. "I went to Disney Worldin 1974 for four days, and ended up staying by myself in the hotelwhile my wife and children enjoyed themselves. I'd seen most ofthe world earlier, while working at sea. I prefer to stay herein my home."
Reminiscing about his days at sea, justafter WWII, he conjures up vivid images of what it was like tofloat freely around the world. Being a Caymanian, he preferredto be on boats that went to warm places and that way he managedto get to South America, Italy, Turkey, Singapore, India, theMiddle East and other foreign points. He also remembers quiteclearly what it was like to be a coloured person in New Orleansin the 1940s.
"I had to wait to get my union papers,and there wasn't a restaurant or a café that I could gointo in those days," he explains.
"Only certain places were open to servinga coloured person then, and none of them was around the Unionoffice."
So when he received his papers that afternoon,he was out on the next available boat to Brazil.
Mr. Warren was in politics just as tourismbegan to take off. In 1972, Grand Cayman was one of the few placesin the Caribbean that was "in the black" in the tourismbusiness. In 1973 and 1974, when the Department of Tourism wasbrand new, the budget was a mere $166,000. With offices in Miami,Chicago and New York they had to be selective about how they spentthat money.
Others wanted to post billboards in theUnited States inviting drivers passing by to visit the beautifulCayman Islands, but Mr. Warren had different ideas. He wantedto target more specific audiences those with money.
"With our beautiful waters and SevenMile Beach, we could attract a good tourist. But we had to limitourselves. We are a small island, after all," says Mr. Warren."When Mr. Executive needs a rest after a stressful time atthe office, what does he do? He asks his secretary, who immediatelypicks up the phone and calls the Travel Agent. They were our connection,not the billboards."
The Department of Tourism organised "FamTours" (familiarisation tours) for these travel agents aroundthe US, and they advertised in reputable magazines such as theNew Yorker, Esquire, Skin Diver, Honeymooner and others. Soonword was getting out that Grand Cayman was a clean, safe, beautifuldestination with top notch services.
Mr. Warren is proud of the work that hehas done in Grand Cayman, even with the problems that he acknowledgesexist today. Some of the difficulties he says he could see coming,but there was no real way to stop them. "We needed labourin order to develop, and people who come here aren't going toleave after they have finished working on a job site. Who wantsto leave Cayman and return to a home that perhaps doesn't haveas much opportunity?" Mr. Warren asks.
"The big problem was that we neverdefined a Caymanian, something I felt was very important. TheCayman Islands had no rules about this, not like Bermuda whereeverything was very controlled, even to the colour that you canpaint your house. I think that the Cayman Islands could have learneda lot from them."
Another point that Mr. Warren brings upis that Grand Cayman has no manufacturing, no labour, no naturalresources. "The real thing that Cayman has going for it isservice, and that should be our point of pride," he says."This is why I didn't campaign for two things - condominiumsand cruise ships. A hotel on Seven Mile Beach provides many moreservice opportunities than a condo sitting empty nine months ofthe year."
Something else that Mr. Warren is proudof is his children. David Ritch, his stepson, who helped him plantthe coconut palm that waves in the breeze before his house, isnow a successful attorney-at-law.
Burns, his second son, recently retiredas President of the Chamber of Commerce. He received his Mastersof Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas. Heis a member of the AIA, and manages his architectural firm, theBurns Conolly Group, in Grand Cayman.
His daughter, Jacqueline, went to Knox Collegein Jamaica and completed her education at the London School ofEconomics.
She was called to the bar at the Inns ofCourt and now works as an attorney-at-law at the firm of Ritch& Conolly.
Now that Mr. Warren is retired, his lifeis perhaps a little calmer than when he was an active politician.He and his wife, Islay are still involved with current happeningsand like to keep abreast of what is going on around them. Butthey prefer to live in East End, in the house they built 32 yearsago just above the cabin where Mr. Warren grew up, watching theocean waves roll in from the east, and enjoying their beautifulisland.