A Senate committee on Thursday advanced two bills that would permanently honor prominent Virgin Islanders by renaming public facilities on St. Thomas after them.
The Senate Government Operations, Veterans Affairs and Consumer Protection Committee voted unanimously to rename the Bolongo Bay Head Start facility for longtime child advocate Dilsa Capdeville and to designate a stretch of Hospital Gade near the Alexander A. Farrelly Justice Complex as Detective Delberth Phipps Jr Street in honor of the police officer killed in the line of duty on July 4, 2023.
Both measures now head to the Rules and Judiciary Committee for further consideration.
Bill 36-0114 would rename the Bolongo Bay Head Start facility in honor of Capdeville, recognizing more than six decades of work on behalf of abused women and children in the Virgin Islands.
Lawmakers and supporters cast Capdeville as a central figure in building the territory’s modern child‑protection system. Testifiers said she launched the Virgin Islands’ first child‑abuse public‑awareness campaigns, organized training for schools and agencies, created the first child‑abuse task force and helped develop the territory’s first child‑abuse statute.
They also noted that she founded Kidscope, described as the first child‑abuse advocacy center in the Caribbean, and that she organized what Sen. Carla Joseph called “the first Caribbean Conference on Child Sexual Abuse,” which drew more than 600 attendees from across the region and the United States.
Senate President Milton E. Potter said Capdeville “did not wait for legislation to act,” crediting her with building task forces, training programs, advocacy centers and coalitions that later became the foundation for laws now on the books in the territory.
Capdeville, now 76, told senators her advocacy began as a teenager after her mother pushed her to work in the community through the Department of Social Welfare. “Within three weeks, I was writing, ‘I must save the children of the world,’” she recalled.
Despite the recognition, Capdeville repeatedly stressed that the work remains unfinished, telling lawmakers there is still “so much to be done” for children, families and vulnerable people in the territory.
Asked what legacy she hopes to leave behind, Capdeville said she wants to be remembered as “somebody who loved her islands more than anything” and worked to make life better for children and families throughout the Virgin Islands.
In a separate vote Thursday, the committee also advanced Bill 36-0191, which would name a stretch of Hospital Gade in honor of Detective Delberth Ian “Buju” Phipps Jr., a Virgin Islands Police Department officer killed in the line of duty.
During Thursday’s hearing, senators, police officials and relatives described Phipps as a dedicated investigator, firearms instructor and mentor to younger officers.
Phipps, 42, was fatally shot July 4, 2023, while responding to a reported “man with a gun” call alongside fellow officers. A St. Thomas native and Charlotte Amalie High School graduate, he joined the Virgin Islands Police Department in 2016 and later became a detective in the Major Crimes Unit, the same division where his father, retired Corporal Delberth Phipps Sr., had served.
His father told lawmakers that “during Detective Phipps Jr.’s short career, he has touched so many lives as he carried out his assignment in a professional manner with everyone he encountered,” adding that he and his wife are “constantly reminded of the respect, kindness and professionalism that our son displayed while performing his duties as a police officer in the community.”
Phipps’ son said his father’s professionalism extended to everyone. “My father was a man who could even treat violators of the law with decency and kindness, so much so that they even attended his viewing to pay their respects,” he testified. “There’s not many people who can achieve that level of recognition — the respect that comes from the silent integrity that outlives you.” He told senators he hopes the street naming will “inspire others to do the right thing, no matter what situations they might find themselves in.”
Capt. María Colon, who oversees the VIPD training bureau, said Phipps “helped share the professionalism, discipline and sound judgment of countless officers,” while longtime friend and law‑enforcement colleague Vernon Carr said he “will always be a hero in my eyes, not because of how he died, but about how he lived.”
The committee’s vote sends both measures to the Rules and Judiciary Committee for further consideration.
