Death notice for Sten Andesr Wiberg Anders Wiberg, resident and business owner in Nassau for over 60 years, passed away this week at the age of 91. Born Sten Anders in Malmö, Sweden in 1935, he was the son of industrialist, politician and philanthropist Åke Wiberg and doctor Märta Holmström. At the age of 20 he graduated from Lundsberg School, completed his military service in the Värmland Regiment, and began his law degree at Lund University. He represented the family’s business, Malmö Strumpfabrik (MSF) in Scandinavia and Germany. After practicing law with his father in Stockholm, he spread his wings, moving to Brazil, New York, and ultimately The Bahamas in 1965.
Wiberg first visited the Bahamas in 1955 to see his relatives, Arne and Gunnel Lindroth, who arrived in 1951. In the mid-1960s he moved to the Park Manor Hotel in Nassau and began investing in real estate, including Cable Beach Manor, which has been officers’ billets for the RAF in World War II. In 1965 at home of Ronnie and Joan Carroll in Cable Beach he met Jane McDermid, who was visiting from New York City, where she worked for The New Yorker. The couple married in 1966 and remained wed until her passing in 2021. They started a family and moved to Palmeiras on Prospect Ridge Road, their home since.
Beginning with his appointment as Vice-Consul to Sweden in the Bahamas in 1969, Wiberg rose to become Consul General and Dean of the Honorary Consular Corps, and is the first person to set term limits. The couple hosted innumerable events at home and their hotel, welcoming generations of local, national, and world leaders. Well-read and travelled he brought persons together. Able to speak many languages, Anders prided himself on being a consensus builder. As a consul he assisted countless persons discretely, and effectively.
The Wibergs expanded Cable Beach Manor with a new wing and the private hotel thrived through the early 1980s before the shift to long term apartments. They sold in 2020. Recipient of the Paul Harris Prize, Wiberg was president of Rotary West Nassau and past president of the Skål International in Nassau. The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) note that “Mr. Wiberg’s dedication to the Caribbean tourism & hospitality industry and his service as a past President of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, as well as the Bahamas Hotel Association, helped shape the growth and development of our region’s hospitality sector.” For many years he travelled to every Caribbean island with an airstrip, as well as Asia and North America, promoting The Bahamas.
He is survived by his children: Ann, John, Eric and James; daughters-in-law: Lynette and Sofia; son in law: Atle Bekken as well as 11 grandchildren – Oscar, Wilhelm Axel, Saoirse, Åke, Felix, Oliver, Isabelle, Anders, Elizabeth, and Alex; great-grandchild: Otto; his brother-in-law: John McDermid; niece: Charlotte Schussele, and younger sister, Ann. Three family members have followed him into the consular field. Anders Wiberg is known to many as a soft spoken, humorous and wise man. His quiet acts of generosity continue to surface today; he is loved and missed by many. His family would like to thank his longtime caregiver Gillian Byles and his medical team, led by Dr. Angela Kunz.
