Obituaries

The death is announced of Madam Eugenia A. Stevenson, the first woman to be appointed a Liberian Ambassador. (President William R. Tolbert named her Ambassador to Bonn in 1973, then the capital of West Germany, now the Federal Republic of Germany.)

The Dunbar family mourns the loss of Jenkins Dunbar, Sr. He passed away peacefully at his home on Du Port Road in Paynesville on July 30th at 5:30 a.m., following an unexpected heart attack. He was 63.

Jenkins was born on June 10, 1947 in Palala, (then Central Province, now Bong County), unto the union of Mr. George Dunbar, the legendary Liberian engineer and father, and Ma Gbetee (which means in Kpelle, “the work that you do here”). He was one of three children.

In 1966, Jenkins graduated from the Booker Washington Institute (BWI) with a diploma in Architecture Drafting. Upon graduating from high school, he then traveled to the United States on a scholarship granted by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to attend Waynesburg College in Pennsylvania, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Geology in 1971.

Returning to West Africa, he received his post graduate certificate in Marine Geology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria in 1973. He returned home to Liberia for an internship at LAMCO, the iron ore conglomerate that mined iron ore in Liberia's Nimba mountain range. The company then sent him to Stockholm, Sweden, where he did additional field work and advanced geological studies. It was then that he obtained his Masters degree in mineral exploration from Leoben, Austria.

MONROVIA – Liberia’s pioneer shoemaker and renowned businessman, Matthew G. Kpeh, 56, died Wednesday, August 12.

He was admitted at St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in Congo Town, a suburb of Monrovia, and passed away at about 5:30 a.m. as a result of heart failure, family sources told the Daily Observer.

Kpeh was born on January 7, 1953, in Moweh District, Rivercess County. During his lifetime, he made many gains as a local businessman and a professional shoemaker.

In 1975, having graduated from the famous Liberia Opportunities Industrialization Centers (LOIC), Kpeh established the award-winning MKS shoemaking shop on McDonald Street, Monrovia.

At the shop, located in the building hosting what was then Crown Hill Cinema, Kpeh mended shoes of all types at low cost.

His customers included low, upper and middle-class citizens and foreign residents including three of Liberia's ex-Presidents, Dr. William Richard Tolbert, CIC Samuel Kanyon Doe and Darkpanah Dr. Charles Ghankay Taylor.

During the 1980s, Kpeh underwent professional shoemaking training in Europe. After completing the sixth grade, he served for many years as president of Shoemaker Association of Liberia.

The death is announced of Mrs. D. Musuleng Cooper, an outstanding Liberian educator and former Foreign Minister of Liberia, which sad event occurred yesterday, June 30, 2009 at her home in Monrovia. She was 79.