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.”

Heard meeting UAE Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, date unknown. Photo: David Heard / Frauke Heard-Bey Heard was a young petroleum engineer when he arrived in Abu Dhabi in August 1963. Photo: David Heard / Frauke Heard-Bey Heard with his wife, Frauke, and children in the UAE in 1985.