The wife of David Heard, who received a posthumous Abu Dhabi Award on his behalf from President Sheikh Mohamed on Thursday, has paid tribute to her late husband for his lasting legacy.
Thursday marked 20 years since the launch of one of the UAE’s most meaningful national honours, the Abu Dhabi Awards, created to credit quiet heroes whose work has strengthened the country and its communities.
Over two decades, the programme has recognised 110 people whose service has left a measurable imprint on the nation. Some of them are no longer alive, yet their contributions continue to be felt.
This year, The National spoke to two families who accepted the award on behalf of loved ones, each of whose life's work still resonates long after their passing.
Dr Frauke Heard-Bey, who herself received the Abu Dhabi Award in 2007, accepted the honour on behalf of her late husband, David Heard, a respected historian, author and photographer whose work documented the country’s early development.
“It would have been wonderful if he had been here,” she said. “But it is comforting to know that this country honours the efforts people have made and the life we lived here for so many decades. We made a home in Abu Dhabi.”
She recalled her husband’s easy rapport with people across the Emirates. “He charmed so many people here,” she said. “Even from the beginning, he would sit with local people, talking about his time in the desert and the things he observed.”
In the early years, the couple explored the UAE extensively despite the lack of roads.
“Many of our national friends rarely travelled between the emirates back then,” she said. “We thought, 'maybe we won’t be here for long - so let’s see everything'. We were very lucky.”
As a historian, Dr Heard-Bey said her own work was driven by a desire to understand the foundations of the society around her. She spent nearly four decades contributing to the Centre for Documentation and Research, publishing books and articles that examined the country’s political, social and cultural evolution.
Her husband, she said, developed a deep appreciation for the historical value of oil company archives. “He understood that those records were essential for documenting the economic history of this country,” she said. “He made those sources visible to the public.”
Had he been alive to witness the ceremony, she believes he would have been humbled. “He would have enjoyed it and been very grateful,” she said. “This country has a big heart.”
Securing a legacy
Abdullah Mohamed Ibrahim Obaidallah received the award on behalf of his father, Mohamed Ibrahim Obaidallah, an early healthcare pioneer in the Emirates.
“My father was a man of few words and a strong believer in helping those in need,” he said. “Education and health were his two main concerns.”
Abdullah recalled one of his father’s most repeated phrases: “I can seek shade under a tree, I can pray under a tree – but I cannot get cured under a tree. I must be treated in a hospital. We need hospitals.”
Guided by this belief, his father went on to establish one of the country’s earliest geriatric hospitals and introduced technology that was groundbreaking in the region — including the Gulf’s first portable CT scan device that allowed the imaging of patients without them leaving their hospital beds.
"My father was alive when there was nothing. He witnessed some of the Second World War – he saw people suffering and going hungry,” he said. “He knew desperation. He understood what it meant to help those in need.”
But his father also believed compassion had to be paired with education. “One of the many things he taught me,” Abdullah said, “is to appreciate the person in front of you and determine how you can help them in a sustainable way – not just by giving money, but by supporting them in a way that lasts.”
His father’s philosophy was simple: go to the poor first and offer whatever comfort you can. “If you can make them feel better even with a smile, do it,” Abdullah said. “I learnt so much from him.”
As the UAE marks two decades of the Abu Dhabi Awards, these stories – of historians who preserved memory, and doctors who built foundations for health care – stand as reminders of the people who helped shape the country’s early path, with empathy, compassion and a thirst to learn.
The Abu Dhabi Awards continue to honour such contributions. Nominations for the next cycle are open, inviting the public to put forward those whose humble service has made a profound difference to the community.
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