"Wow!" said Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson-Doty on Wednesday, as she accepted the Lladro statuette of knight-errant Don Quixote, thus becoming the Rotary Club of St. Thomas II 2014 Person of the Year.
The familiar expression was exactly what another popular figure, Chamber of Commerce executive director Joseph Aubain uttered as he accepted the same honor in 2006.
Like her predecessor, it took Nicholson-Doty about a heartbeat to regain her composure. Still somewhat shaken by the sudden turn of events, she gasped, "I really worked on this presentation. I wondered why the governor was here. He doesn’t usually come to my presentations."
Looking at her expectant audience, she seemed to fight back a tear or two as she expressed her wonder and gratitude. "I’m humbled," she said simply. "It’s an honor to serve. I knew how important this job was before I accepted it, and I said ‘no’ to the governor more than once."
With her signature wide smile, the commissioner thanked Rotary for her honor and tried unsuccessfully to escape the limelight as friends and colleagues overwhelmed her. Her husband, Randall Doty, said, "I didn’t find out until about two hours ago when I was summoned to be here."
Selection committee chairman Elliott MacIver Davis, who has a long record of pulling off these surprise ceremonies, really outdid himself Wednesday.
Like a director after a good performance, Davis later looked equally delighted and relieved. "The logistics were a challenge, for one," he said. "We had to coordinate Beverly and the governor’s schedules." He credited Tanya Duran, executive assistant to the commissioner, for that, which he said took about two months.
"She was the only one in Tourism who knew," Davis said giving her a grateful hug. "The last contact we had was today when she told me we would need a screen."
Nicholson-Doty was lured to the luncheon by an invitation to make a Tourism presentation. The stage was set in the Marriott’s Frenchman’s Reef Beach Resort dining room, with a screen bearing the Tourism logo.
"We were up late last night finishing this," she said later. "And it really is a good presentation."
Davis said she was still welcome to present it.
As Nicholson-Doty, Deputy Commissioner Chantal Figueroa and Duran sat at a table adjacent to the podium, Davis began, "Now it is time to pause for a moment and talk about stealth. Honesty and openness are two hallmarks of the woman we’re about to recognize. Neither of these are the characteristics which one brings to bear when arranging for an accomplished and very busy individual to be completely surprised by the bestowing of this honor."
Then, he gave it away.
"We are aided by the very nature of this recipient: always focused on task like a light beam," he said. "Even now, likely conducting one final review of her notes about the multimedia presentation she thinks she is here to give today, I am fairly sure she has not a clue why she is really here – that is, not until now."
Davis was right about that. The commissioner and deputy commissioner appeared equally in awe at the turn of events.
Nicholson-Doty has had such an abundantly successful career that it’s a challenge to do a thumbnail of her service to the territory, but Davis took the challenge.
Speaking of altruism, Davis said there are those among us who are visionaries – people who "eventually achieve the position where they were destined to make a difference." He hailed Nicholson-Doty as a great example, tracing her career as the Hotel and Tourism Association director, where she created an integrated group that strengthened the territory’s entire tourism product – the USVI Hotel & Tourism Association – leaving three years later to assume her current post.
"She is a public servant who has headed a reconfiguration and renaissance of one of the most crucial arms of local government," he said.
Davis spoke of a few of Nicholson-Doty’s accomplishments:
– She closed the territory’s stateside and offshore offices, which cost huge amounts of taxpayer dollars. She realized the travel agents, cruise and airline officials shouldn’t have to come to us; we should go to them. She used the savings to train and send teams to various to make our case. It worked. Arrivals of tourists held steady in the Great Recession of 2008, and since 2012, we have seen the highest levels of air and cruise passenger traffic to our islands in more than a decade.
-She has focused on St. Croix’s tourism development, where cruise ship calls have grown exponentially. This year, St. Croix will host the Platinum Members Conference of the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association.
– Her office worked tirelessly with the airlines to increase airlift and to manage the disruptive changes at American and American Eagle.
-As if to emphasize respect she commands in the region and in the industry, Nicholson-Doty will be the next chairwoman of the Caribbean Tourism Association.
He concluded by saying that Nicholson-Doty "dreams a dream and follows that up with hard work, commitment and determination. She dreams of lifting the economic boat of her fellow Virgin Islanders by expanding and promoting our tourism economy."
More pragmatic than romantic, perhaps it’s Nicholson-Doty’s version of Quixote’s impossible dream.