Mary and I first met Ab and Lil in Navrongo Ghana in 1978 at the “IFCAT” agricultural communication center that he was helping to create. We moved to Iowa City to study Communication for (3rd World), Development, and felt so fortunate when Ab joined that program a few years later, enriching all of us with his knowledge and experience, and the pleasure of friendship we have enjoyed with him and Lil over the years. We worked together in Nigeria on strategies and designs for the launching of new national immunization and oral rehydration therapy programs that in years to come would save hundreds of thousands of lives annually. The logos he produced through participatory processes for those disease prevention programs— accentuating images of healthy, strong babies reaching for the future — were a key element in the popularity, high political profile and rapid spread those programs achieved. A number of other countries incorporated his designs into their own program logos (without attribution, of course! What do you think, dear Ab, a precursor to AI?)
We will miss you, Friend, and we are thinking of you, Lil, and send condolences to all the family.
