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Living Streams Church7000 North Central AvenuePhoenix, AZ 85020Saturday 30th January 2020 @ 10:00amInterment follows @12:00 NoonHoly Cross Catholic Cemetery and Funeral Home9925 West Thomas RoadAvondale, AZ 85392MORE DETAILS: ALL TIMES ARE IN MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME.
9:30 AM - VIEWING FOR IMMEDIATE FAMILY ONLY!
10:00 AM - SERVICE
11:30 AM - LEAVE CHURCH TO INTERNMENT ADENIJI AKINBOYEJO ADARALEGBE JUNIOR was born to the family of late Professor Adeniji and Mrs. Ebunoluwa Rosemarie Adaralegbe. His paternal grandfather was a direct descendant of the Oyiyo Ruling House of Ijero Ekiti, Ekiti State while his late mother was an indigene of Ondo town, Ondo State. Adeniji was born in St John’s Episcopal Hospital, Queens, New York on 31st July 1968 on the eve of his father’s successful defense of his PhD in New York University. He was given the name “Akinboyejo” in commemoration of this happy occasion. Buoyed by the popular Black American culture of that time that saw black American male offsprings like Martin Luther King Jnr. and many others, being named after their fathers, his father named his son “Adeniji Junior.” “Junior”, as he would come to be popularly known from infancy was the fifth child out of seven children of Professor and Mrs Adaralegbe. He had two brothers and four sisters.
His father joined the then University of Ife(now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife, in present day Osun State, South Western Nigeria, in the late 1960s after completing his studies and his family relocated from New York, USA to the University staff quarters in Ile-Ife. The period coincided with the University’s movement from Ibadan, its temporary site to Ile-Ife, its permanent site, widely adjudged as one of the most beautiful university campuses at that time. It was in Ife campus that Junior thrived and grew into a healthy, beautiful, sociable, and very gregarious child. His older siblings remember him to be the kid brother who could not be separated from sucking his thumb. Not even a sock tied tightly around his hand and soaked in bitter herbs could stop him from sucking!
He attended the University Staff School, Seventh Day Adventist Primary School and St. Johns Grammar School, (a Catholic day School), all in Ile Ife for his nursery, primary and secondary school education. He excelled modestly in sports in Secondary School, representing his School in the junior category of long distance running. Junior was admitted to the University of Ife, Faculty of Administration to study Accounting, in the mid-80s, later acquiring a B.Sc. in Accounting. His time at the University was very happy. He kept up with a very active social life where he was a common face at parties and made so many friends that he remained in contact with, even after he left the University.
Junior left Nigeria in January 1992 for the United States, arriving first in Chicago, and then moving to Atlanta in 1992, and then to Iowa in 1995, before finally settling in Phoenix, Arizona in 2001. Junior attended Grandview College, Des Moines, Iowa, receiving a second Bachelor’s degree, this time in Computer Information Systems. He later obtained a professional certification in Microsoft (MCSC). He worked in Northwest Bank Des Moines (now Wells Fargo Bank) at some point. In Arizona, he worked and was mentored by one of the greatest telemarketers of his time. It was here that Junior’s entrepreneurial spirit really sprang to life. He left to set up his own business in 2004, beginning with The Greatest Virtual Office, a Website development company. He eventually set up Elevated Marketing Strategies, an internet advertising/telemarketing company. He also had a clothing line, which he named NY/X-New York Exchange, where he sold upscale Italian wears. Junior went into partnership with others and set up an online business named Arraga.com, with offices in Phoenix, London and Lagos. Before he became sick, he was exploring Nigeria’s vast untapped opportunities and together with his wife, attended and spoke at a number of conferences, granted television interviews and produced promotional videos. He was very successful in business and at the height of his business, Junior had on his pay roll a large number of staff in his employment.
In 1995, he met his soul mate Sandra “Sandy” Johnson in Des Moines, Iowa and they got married in Phoenix, Arizona in December 1999 and a union of 21 beautiful years is blessed with four beautiful children; Adejope Marie, Adejaiye Rose, Adeniji Dean(III) and Adesewa Kay. He was an extremely happy family person and his family meant absolutely everything to him. He loved his wife so dearly and took her everywhere. They were business partners and took important decisions together. His children were the reason Junior got up every day. He wanted them to be complete, accomplished and beautiful human beings. He sent his daughter to a boarding house in England for exposure. In Arizona, he personally drove his daughter to school everyday, but he was quite strict with them.
In Phoenix, where three of his sisters also lived, he relentlessly encouraged them to quit paid employment and seek self-employment. He was a very great uncle to his nieces and nephews, and was counselor-in-chief to all of them on life matters. Music was an integral and important part of Junior’s life. He played his favorite Yoruba, Jazz, Gospel and oldies at home, in his car and at work. He was an extremely good dancer and as a child he won several cash gifts for his dancing prowess. Junior was very adventurous, very outdoor and had an optimistic, positive and sunny disposition to life. He constantly organized family get-togethers, vacations, barbecues, and parties and was well known in the Nigerian community in Arizona.
His family and friends remember Junior to be a big lover of life, very affectionate, dependable, selfless, wise, hard working and a thinker who was blessed with a very generous spirit and an outsized heart. He was also very trendy, fashionable and stylish and was so very particular about how he looked. He took personal grooming seriously, lived healthy and was a very strong advocate of healthy living. He spent a lot of time in the gym. He would also be especially remembered for being so very humorous. There was simply no dull moment around Junior. He churned out one joke after another, leaving people around him in long stitches. Junior had a rare gift of effortlessly mimicking people and was able to imitate just about anybody. He spoke his parents Ekiti and Ondo dialects best among his siblings, a function of years of mimicking his maternal grandmother who lived with his family and his relatives that he closely interacted with. He also had a smattering of the Igbo language. Junior was a risk taker, bold and very resilient. He was a devout Christian and an usher in his church. He was a mentor to so many people and his counsel was regularly sought, especially on business start-ups.
Junior had a Stroke while exercising in the gym on 19th of April 2018, just a few weeks to his 50th birthday. He went into a coma immediately after this. His wife remained by his bed side throughout this period until she was prevented by the hospital due to the COVID Pandemic restrictions. He battled this illness until 6th January 2021 when he handed in his lamp and went to be with the Lord. He is survived by his wife and four children, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, uncles, aunties and cousins and would forever be sorely missed by so many.
ORIKI
OMO OWA, OMO EKUN; OMO OBALEYAKIN bi arira; OMO OYIYO ki mu irukere t’aiye Ijero se;
Omo Ugun odo Igbara, omo eleiye ki ise weyeweye lori ogun; Ira ule ahun leji upe; Obi ule ahun Efon kumoye, omo Ode Didu oke Efon; Omo Elefon miyara jinjin; An b’Efon ire kan an mu ‘ho ale rian han ni; Moka moye, omo aroluo lejigan; Omo elejigan ororo ubile; Ogburuu g’or’odi o la Ijero paara s’eji, in k’okan re e j’ or’odi, k’okkan re e j‘aralu; OMO AJERO ku osa, omo osu keregbe legbe orun; Omo ikarakara isomo didedide leti ogun; O kare o.
OMO OBA OYIYO saiye Ekiti.
Sun un re o!
