Samuel A. Darku

A man who truly loved life" Samuel A Darku was the oldest of 15 children in a polygamous family. He was born on August 21, 1935 in Nsawam in the Eastern Region of Ghana to John Ajorlolo Darku and Emelia Ablawo. He was fondly called by his parents, siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews as "Ababio". They hardly called him Samuel. Ababio, in the Akan language of Ghana, means "he or she is back again". This was because his mother had a few miscarriages before he was born. Therefore, the name "Ababio" meant "he represented the children that his mother had lost or that, in him, the souls of those lost children had returned." He had his elementary and middle school education in Nsawam. Upon passing his Common Entrance exam in 1951, he proceeded to Zion College, a high school in the Volta Region of Ghana, where he obtained his General Certificate of Education Ordinary-level (GCE O-level) certificate in 1956. The young and enterprising Ababio --- realizing that his mother was too possessive and wanting to be independent --- left Nsawam for Accra, the capital city of Ghana. There, he worked for British Overseas Airways Corporation as a teletype operator, and was sent to London for advanced training. He continued to work as a teletype operator in 1962, until he got a clerical position at the American Embassy. It was here that he was fortunate enough to meet a good samaritan who helped him to travel to United States in 1963. This was, of course, during the civil rights movement. As a new immigrant, he used to listen to Malcolm X on the radio and wondered how someone who dropped out of junior high school was so eloquent and smart. In 1964, a year after he left Ghana, his wife Theresa joined him. One of his first jobs in the USA was at Western Union Telegraph Company where he was responsible for sending telegraph messages of news reports. A believer in the value of education, Ababio obtained degrees in business at Boston University and Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. He worked as Planner at Digital Equipment Corporation and a Logistics Planner at Wang Laboratories. He was a hardworking man. He was a voracious reader, was interested in politics and global affairs, and had a curious mind. But he also liked to have fun, a party man who believed in the old saying "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." He had varied tastes in music, some of which were jazz, blues, and highlife music of Ghana. With dignity and quiet strength, he gallantly battled high blood pressure, diabetes, and their complications but eventually gave up the ghost on April 7, 2018. He will be sorely missed by his two grandchildren Trinity and Skylar, his children: Esi, Effie (Afua), and Pamela (Mansah), his wife, family, and friends. At the family's request, there will be no service.