Donna L. Pearman

President & Visionary – Charting the Course Of People’s Pharmacy

In 1974 Donna Pearman graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from Dalhousie University. Her interest in Pharmacy began as a student at Berkeley Institute when she was introduced to the world of Chemistry, Physics and Biology. It was further piqued when visiting her local community drugstore in St. George and observing the Pharmacists dispensing medicines.

At the age of 15 she decided that Pharmacy was the career for her and has been associated with Pharmacy ever since, having been offered a job as a summer student at the age of 16. Her summers were spent either working directly under Pharmacists in a retail environment or at a drug wholesalers where she had hands on with just about all medicine coming into Bermuda for distribution to retail outlets. Once graduating she returned to Bermuda to work at Hamilton Pharmacy where she had been a student and worked there for 10 years finishing as their Chief Pharmacist. Her interest in the business of retail pharmacy had grown tremendously over the years and the challenge of operating a Pharmacy and determining her own destiny could not be ignored.

By 1983 there were no successful black owned pharmacies so she was constantly encouraged by friends and customers to pursue this idea. Since she was the first black Bermudian to actually practice Pharmacy locally, the pressure was non-stop. In fact the encouragement from friends and customers gave her the confidence which was needed to proceed with the idea. In 1983, Ms. Pearman left her job and began the process of planning to open her own business. She had decided on a name, years prior when talking to a friend Reid Simmons and trying to explain to him her concept of a successful retail pharmacy. The idea was to have a business in which the entire community felt welcome – not just people of her own race. During those years it was commonly felt that Black owned businesses were not traditionally supported by people of other ethnic groups. Ms. Pearman set out to change that and so decided to call her business “People’s Pharmacy”.

Location featured high on the list of a successful pharmacy so Ms Pearman spent many weeks even months scouting areas of Hamilton for a suitable spot. She knew that she needed to be close to Doctors' offices so that her Pharmacy would be “convenient” for their patients and decided to concentrate on the eastern side of Hamilton since town had to obviously expand in that direction. The perfect spot was found on Victoria Street in close proximity to approximately six doctors at that time.

Having had a business plan already prepared Ms. Pearman knew that this was a vast undertaking and decided to enlist the support of her family. Her father immediately warmed to the idea and retired as a General Foreman at the Naval Base to become the Assistant Manager. Her cousin Aleathea (Pearman) Rabain resigned her job as a cashier/stock person at a retail pharmacy to become the Front Shop Manager – she was responsible for all of the buying of the beauty, health magazines, candy, etc., in the front shop. Ms. Pearman was the General Manager and Pharmacist, so was responsible for overall operations, in particular the smooth running of the dispensary. The business opened on October 31, 1984 with five full-time people on staff.

Donna continued to run the business and work as a pharmacist until 2001, when she decided to step back from the dispensary and concentrate on running the business. “It certainly hasn’t been easy, especially at the beginning. My dad, cousin and I used to work for 12 hours a day but all the hard work is certainly paying off. We really are going from strength to strength and it’s due to the hard work of our staff. I couldn’t ask for better employees and customers who have been extremely loyal,” she said.

The pharmacy is still very much a family business – with Donna’s daughter Tamara Richardson who joined as the Buyer and is now the Vice President of Sales & Operations; her dad Norris Pearman as Vice President; her cousin Aleathea Rabain as Public Relations Officer; her cousin Reken Pearman as Office Manager; her cousin Aleasha Pearman as Accounts Assistant and cousin Kenneth Pearman Jr. who recently joined the team as a Warehouse Assistant.