Fred was born March 6, 1935, making him easily the youngest member of our class. He prepped at Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta. Both his parents were doctors. As an undergraduate, Fred was a member of Phi Psi and majored in political science. He was actively involved in many extracurricular activities around the campus, starting right out as manager of our freshmen soccer team. Fred was involved with the Christian Association, Debating Council, Managerial Association, Pre-Law Club and radio station WAMF. He was on the executive committee of the Rotherwas Society.
After Amherst, Fred went to Northwestern, where he received a law degree in 1958. He then worked as an attorney in Chicago for several companies including Borg-Warner from 1970 to 77. Fred was chair of the Hyde Park Co-op Society in Chicago from 1969 to 1971.
In the early ’80s, Fred returned to Atlanta, where he spent the rest of his life. I last talked to him in February 1999, when he indicated he was struggling with health issues. Fred died March 19, 2004.
Dr. Frederick Earl McLendon was born January 5, 1906 in Washington, Georgia, the eldest of three children born to the Rev. Earl R. McLendon and Mrs. Emma L. Gary McLendon. Spawned from a lineage of Black excellence, Dr. McLendon's heritage included his father, who was a distinguished minister in Wilkes County; and his grandfather, the Rev. Toombs McLendon, who was the second licensed African-American funeral director in the State of Georgia.
Dr. McLendon was a graduate of the prestigious Morehouse College in Atlanta and received his medical certification a the Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. McLendon was a veteran of World War II, during which time he served as a medical examiner for the United States Armed Forces.
Upon moving to the City of Atlanta from Athens, Georgia after World War II, Dr. McLendon began his service in Atlanta's medical examiner's office. In 1946, Dr. McLendon made history when he opened the McLendon Medical Clinic (later renamed McLendon Hospital) upon his recognition of a need for a fully functional medical center for the African-American residents of Atlanta, who otherwise could not receive medical treatment in the segregated area hospitals. Soon after, Dr. McLendon opened the Earl R. McLendon Health Care Center, in memory of his father. Dr. McLendon served as the medical director and was the chairman of the boards of both institutions.
Dr. McLendon was a member of Omega Psi Phi and Sigma Pi Phi fraternities and was a former member of the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium Building Authority. He also served as an executive officer for the National, Georgia, and Atlanta medical associations. Dr. McLendon was a member of the American Medical Association and the Medical Association of Georgia.
Dr. McLendon was survived by his wife, Mrs. Bennie B. McLendon; daughter, Ms. Joyce M. Yancey, Silver Spring, Md.; sons, Frederick E. McLendon, Jr. and Robert B. McLendon, Atlanta, Ga.; brother, T. A. McLendon, Washington, Ga.; sister, Mrs. Agnes M. Freeland, Van Nuys, Calif.; aunt, Mrs. Essie M. Tucker, Santa Monica, Calif.; uncle, James A. McLendon, Chicago, Ill.; and four grandchildren.
Fred Austin Culver died of multiple organ failure on April 9, 2007. I can’t remember when my freshman roommate, Matt Mitchell, and I first met Fred, but it was in 1950, early in our freshman year. By the end of that year, my closest friends were Matt, Fred and Bob Schapiro.We decided to room together for our sophomore year. What we shared were seriousness about being good students, a drive for achievement and an awareness that we were public school graduates at a college which had built its reputation and endowment from private school products.
Matt and I had come from upper middle class, suburban public schools.Our parents were college graduate professionals.Bob and Fred were the first generation in their families to go to college. Bob’s father had a two vehicle trucking business in the garment district of New York.Fred’s father was the president of a Rubber Workers local. Fred’s father knew what discrimination was all about, but he also knew how to overcome it.
We were an atypical group, we four roommates, in 1951. Bob was from a Newark, NJ, school district that was 95 percent Jewish. Fred was a Negro (as the respectful term was in those days) from Warren, OH, a town nobody in the east had ever heard of. For Matt and me, Fred and Bob were as important to our education as were any classes we took.
Matt’s high school in Scarsdale, NY, had a few Jews—all with substantial money.But there were no African-Americans in Matt’s class.My high school in Shaker Heights was religiously integrated—a substantial Jewish contingent whose after-school social life was completely separate from that of the predominant white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants.We had a few Catholics. There were two African-American girls who paid tuition to attend Shaker.They came to school, went home after school, and no one knew what they did otherwise.We had a head custodian who was African-American. He symbolized the opportunities for blacks in those days—he was a college graduate in charge of keeping our school clean and in good repair.
Fred had higher aspirations, later realized in almost fifty years practicing law. He came to Amherst on a full scholarship, an Eagle Scout, and first in his class in high school. Fred was among the most popular men in our Class—elected to the student council by our junior year, vice president of the council in our senior year. He was elected to both Sphinx and Scarab. He graduated cum laude and, after his tour of duty as an air force officer, went on to law school at Ohio State, where he finished near the top of his class.
For Matt, Fred, Bob and me living together in 29 South that sophomore year was a social experience that few in America could have in those days.We learned first hand from each other about life, fears of discrimination and aspirations of millions we had never seen. We studied together, ate together, went to parties together and competed together. Equally important we learned to be true friends in ways that never left us.
The lifelong impact that those years at Amherst had for all of us and what Fred contributed can never be discounted.We learned from living together as genuine friends that it was possible to build a society based on relationships that transcended race, religion and national origin.We were beginning to live in the world that Martin Luther King, Jr. had his dream about.
Burial took place at the La Cemetery in Accra on Saturday of Dr. Amon Nikoi, former Governor of the Bank of Ghana. Earlier a burial service was held at Accra Ridge Church, which was attended by dignitaries that included President Agyekum Kufuor, his wife Theresah, Ministers of State, relatives, friends, and sympathisers.
President Kufour and his wife on arrival filed past the body in a coffin on a raised dais and exchanged greetings with the bereaved family and the widow, Mrs. Gloria Nikoi and her children. The Reverend (Mrs.) Ernestina Afriyie of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the immediate Co-ordinating Chaplain of the Church, in a sermon said God gave everyone a talent to be used for the welfare of mankind of mankind.
She said the talent was to be used at an opportune time and to the ability of the individual not for selfish gains or only to enrich himself but to be used to improve the welfare of society and mankind. The late Dr. Nikoi, 72, died on Thursday, September 5, after a short illness. Born on January 19 1930 at La, Accra, Dr. Nikoi was educated at the Roman Catholic Jubilee Primary School at Cape Coast and then Achimota School from 1945-48.
He continued his education at the Amherst College in USA where he obtained a Bsc in Economics in 1953, a Fellow of Harvard University, USA 1953-55 and Honorary M.A. Amherst in 1963.
Dr. Nikoi continued his academic and intellectual pursuits at Harvard University, where he obtained a Master's degree in Public Administration and a PhD in Political Economy and Government simultaneously in 1956.
He became a member of the Ghana Commonwealth and Foreign Service from 1957-1960 and was posted to the Ghana Embassy in Washington to become the Permanent Representative of Ghana to the United Nations (UN). From 1960-1966, Dr. Nikoi was made the Alternate Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and between 1966-1968 became the Executive Director of the IMF.
In 1969, Dr. Nikoi returned to Ghana to assume office as the first Director of Budget at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and later was appointed Senior Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Finance between 6 January 1969-February 1973.
On 1 March 1973, he was appointed Governor of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Ghana and within the same period was the Chairman of Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) and Chairman, Grains Warehousing Company.
He was retired in 1977 as the Governor of the Central Bank by the National Redemption Council (NRC) under the late General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. In 1979, Dr. Nikoi was decorated with the State Honour of the Order of the Volta (Civil Division) for public service in Public Administration and Banking by the SMC II under General F. W. K.Akuffo.
During the Third Republic, under Dr. Hilla Limann and the People's National Party (PNP), Dr. Nikoi was appointed Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. After his retirement, he worked as an Economic and Financial Consultant until his death. He left behind a widow, Mrs. Gloria Nikoi, three children and two grand children.
Nikoi was born in the Accra suburb of La on 19 January 1930 to Ga parents.[6] His father, Gottfried Ashaley Nikoi was a civil servant while his mother, Agnes Betty Oboshie Quao was a teacher and a textiles trader. Amon Nikoi's maternal great-grandfather, Nii Ngleshie Addy I was the oldest son of Nii Tetteh Tsuru I, the founder and ruler of the Otuopai Clan, a royal house in Ga Mashie.
Amon Nikoi had his primary and middle education at the Roman Catholic Jubilee School in Cape Coast followed by his secondary school at Achimota College between 1945 and 1948.[5][6] He graduated from Amherst College in 1953 with a bachelor's degree in Economics.[6] He proceeded to Harvard University as a Fellow from 1953 to 1955 for his master's degree in Public Administration and a doctorate in Political Economy and Government.[5][6][8] Both degrees were conferred upon Nikoi in 1956.[6] Amon Nikoi's Ph.D. dissertation was titled, "Indirect rule and government in Gold Coast Colony 1844-1954; a study in the history, ecology and politics of administration in a changing society."[8]
When constitutional rule returned in 1979, the Third Republican government of the Hilla Limann-led People's National Party (PNP) made him Minister of Finance and Economic Planning and later, a presidential advisor.[6] He entered private practice as an Economic and Financial Consultant to various private sector firms and public institutions both home and abroad.[5][6] He was also the chairman of Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) and Grains Warehousing Company.[5][6]
The late Dr Nikoi, was born on 19th January 1930 at La, Accra and died on Thursday, 5 September. He had Bsc in Economics at the Amherst College in USA in 1953, a Fellow of Harvard University, USA 1953-55 and honorary M. A. Amherst in 1963.
Between 1957-1960, he joined the Ghana Foreign Service and was posted to the Ghana Embassy in Washington to become the Permanent Representative of Ghana to the United Nations (UN). From 1960-1966, Dr Nikoi was made the Alternate Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and between 1966-1968 became the Executive Director of the IMF.
Dr Nikoi was appointed Senior Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Finance between 6 January1969-February 1973. On 1 March 1973, he was appointed Governor and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Ghana, within the same period was the Chairman of Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) and Chairman, Grains Warehousing Company.
He was retired in 1977 as the Governor of the Central Bank by the National Redemption Council (NRC) under the late General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. During the Third Republic under Dr Hilla Limann and the People’s National Party (PNP), Dr Nikoi was appointed Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. He left behind a widow, Mrs Gloria Amon-Nikoi, three children and two grand children.
