Edgar O. Lake

Some men and women make their mark in any discipline that they choose to undertake and create bridges between eras, people and places. One such person is Edgar O. Lake, who was born in the eastern Caribbean, grew up on St. Croix and is now a cultural administrator with the island’s Department of Education. A military journalist in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam era, Lake landed in New York where he worked his way up from the mail room to a career in advertising. While there, he studied America’s Harlem Renaissance, a cultural period in the 1920s and 1930s that saw the emergence of works by great African-American writers.

Back home, Lake was inspired by the equally rich Caribbean experience to create his own literary works. He published several books, including “The Devil’s Bridge,” wrote poetry, essays, plays and screenplays, and became a video producer. When Nina York, a St. Croix-based Danish writer, translator and guide, obtained a grant to produce a documentary about a Danish impressionist who visited the Virgin Islands in 1904, she immediately thought of Lake.

“I selected him as script writer for the Hugo Larsen video — and chose him as narrator for his melodious voice — as well as a presenter for his deep and sensitive understanding of Larsen’s experiences here,” says York. “As President of the Society of Virgin Islands Historians, he has done a fine job, bringing scholars from around the world to our meetings.”

Though well-versed in the past, Lake reaches out in the present to visitors he encounters as he walks through Christiansted wearing his trademark Panama hat. “All of us are human beings that just want to say hello,” he says.

One such encounter led to a cultural exchange of sorts. “I met a lady in Christiansted in a wheelchair who could not get into most stores,” Lake recalls, “so I walked her to a store I knew.” Later, the two sat on a bench overlooking the harbor and chatted about the vivid history of the small offshore island, Protestant Cay. The woman remarked that the story would make a wonderful children’s book and gave Lake her card as her tour group departed. “She turned out to be a very prominent children’s author,” he says. “So I bought a book by a local children’s author and sent it to her.” The woman sent one of her books in return and made plans to visit the island again.

“The strongest departments of tourism are the people who live here,” says Lake. “St. Croix is a beautiful human endeavor that says, ‘Come again.’”