Speak even briefly to banker/software designer Mark Pankhurst and you are sure he can’t possibly sleep more than a few hours a night. Pankhurst is always busy. He has invented numerous financial technologies, started and managed a half dozen businesses, hitchhiked across Canada and the US, taught himself programming in the era of punch cards, and, he and his wife, Barbara have launched an extraordinary arts organization in the Turks and Caicos where they now live.

It’s a long way from Ottawa (where Pankhurst grew up) to the long sandy beaches of Turks and Caicos. It’s even farther from the icy reaches of Winnipeg where Pankhurst first went to work in a bank. But years before he had ever been to the Caribbean, he says, he just knew he wanted to live there. “I just hated snow and cold. I always wanted to go to the Caribbean.” That didn’t happen immediately, of course. He did move south… to Pennsylvania. He worked and worked. “I taught myself programming, software design, software installation,” he says recalling the days at the bank and the long nights teaching himself about computers. “I learned everything on the job.”

When he met Barbara, he realized they shared a love of hard work, technology and a Caribbean idyll. They visited Montserrat, loved it and dreamed retiring there. Then, Mark says, his voice tinged with sadness, the devastating Hurricane Hugo hit. That was followed by the eruption of Montserrat’s volcano. The island was severely damaged. “We kept hoping that volcano would just go back to sleep.” It didn’t. So much for Montserrat. The couple tried other islands, even bought a place in Cayman. Nothing quite fit, until it did.

While on a family vacation atParrot Cay in Turks and Caicos, the Pankhursts saw an old 1970s house on 2.5 acres for sale. “It was a sunny day,” Mark says. “A very beautiful sunny day!” Barbara adds. “We can build something beautiful here,” they both agreed as they stood in the long dirt driveway looking at the house. It was, he says, a Eureka moment and from the beginning they knew it would be more than a home for their family. “We wanted space to entertain and have lots of guests.” Barbara says.

You would have to know this couple to understand that when Barbara and Mark say “entertain”, it means something bigger and something much more inclusive than inviting family and close friends over. When the villa, with its two guests cottages and exotic Moroccan- and Indian-accented interior was finished, they had their first party. “We had ballet and modern dance performances in the driveway” says Barbara, a former dancer herself. “We knew from the beginning we wanted a house big enough to welcome as many as two hundred people for fundraisers and recitals.” In short, the couple wanted to bring the arts into their home and to the island.

They allied themselves with other island residents with similar interests and only a year after moving to their new home launched a non-profit to support the arts, Turks & Caicos Friends of the Arts Foundation. Since 2002 (along with Turk and Caicos’ Director of Culture, David Bowen) they have organized performances by international ballet companies, launched film festivals, invited Broadway actors perform, held dance workshops in the schools taught by New York choreographers, and importantly, showcased local talent.

Attend TCFAF’s events and you will see everything from Irish step dancers to Caribbean steel pan bands. TCAF is in the schools too. The organization created projects such as a History of Jazz syllabus and African drumming and dancing workshops. The little arts organization has even sent local ballet students, ages 9 to 15, to the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet for a workshop. Fronted by Mark and Barbara, the TCFAF team has supported events such as Shakespeare performances for and by children and community theater for adults. The projects Mark and Barbara Pankhurst have nurtured to fruition over the past decade and a half are too endless to name and, as it turns out, not just about the arts.

“She’s the driver of all this!” Mark says of his wife with a clear note of admiration in his voice. “Did he tell you about his observatory and telescopes?” she asks with pride in her voice. Yes, their Turks and Caicos villa not only has a swimming pool, sauna and lush acreage of coconut, avocado, pomegranate, papaya and key lime trees, it has a fifteen foot diameter, twenty foot tall observatory with three telescopes.

When as child listening to the BBC on the crystal radio he built (naturally), he heard the Russians just launched a satellite. He ran outside and actually saw Sputnik pass overhead and as he says, still with child’s delight, he was mesmerized by outer space. “We were too poor to have a telescope, but space was my fascination.” And this observatory is not just a toy for a man of means to indulge a childhood wish. The observatory (the only one on Turks and Caicos and the only private one in the Caribbean) is, as he sees it. another resource for the island he loves so much. “Word got out there are telescopes here at the villa.” So, of course, Pankhurst seized the opportunity to give back to the community. “I work with the schools, give some physics lessons…you know…” His voice trails off, seemingly embarrassed by any attention on himself and his service to his island neighbors. He, like Barbara, underplays his instinct for sharing.

Pankhurst frequently starts sentences with “Since I was a child I was always fascinated with….” The fascinations are many and range from outer space to ancient Rome. But the fact is, talk to either partner in this remarkable couple, and you’re fascinated with them, their extraordinarily beautiful villa and their boundless energy and joy in sharing their lives and resources with others. “[After] 15 years, Turks and Caicos is really home!” Pankhurst says.