George Acquaye's Obituary
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.”
William Wordsworth
Mr. George Allotey Acquaye was born to Mr. Magnus Kpakpo Acquaye and Mrs. Eugenia Della Acquaye of blessed memory on the 26th of April 1959. He was a premature baby, so he was a very special child. He was adored by both parents. He started nursery at Mrs. Bannerman nursery school Adabraka, Ghana and then primary at Achimota school as a boarding student at the tender age of six. He continued to Achimota’s secondary school, and excelled at mathematics and physics, completing sixth form there.
After sixth form, he went on to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where he read for a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. He worked at Asafo Boakye and Partners for a couple of years until he was awarded a scholarship to pursue his master’s degree at Stanford University in California, United States of America. George graduated with a masters in Engineering Economic Systems and a masters in Civil Engineering from Stanford. It was there that he met Dr. Florence Shu. They married and were blessed with their daughter, Aku Afanwi Acquaye.
Upon graduating from Stanford, he began working for the California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS) where he was most recently promoted to senior transportation engineer in the design division. He was part of a team that helped to build many bridges in Southern California. He was in active service until his untimely death on 24th February 2025. George was very diligent, affable and caring. He was a big advocate of education and was full of joy when his daughter Aku graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University with a bachelor’s in political economics. Likewise, he was delighted when his nieces and nephew also graduated from universities.
For the last fifteen years, he was dealing with ulcerative colitis, likely because he was born so premature. He had some relief when a new medication was administered to him over the last three years. However, a few weeks prior to his untimely death, he came down with a severe case of the flu, which proved too much for his compromised immunity to handle. He is survived by his daughter Aku and his siblings May, Mercy, John and James. May his soul rest in perfect peace.
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