Georg Ekosse, Senior Professor

As we grew up, our parents made us to understand that cousins were not cousins, but brothers and sisters. Therefore, John never called my father uncle but Pa Litange, and we all knew the mother as Iya Gbwai. Hence, I always referred to him as Brother John or Brother Vetinde. We played together, we ate together, we sang together and we danced together. We gave counsel to one another and encouraged one another in the path of success, and we shared our successes together.


Brother John
Mola Vetinde
Professor John Lifongo Vetinde
We will always be together

Georges Ekosse
Senior Professor

I am absolutely shocked and deeply saddened to hear about the passing of this amazing man.  As a French major at Lawrence, not only did I have the opportunity to take many classes with him, I also had the opportunity to travel to Dakar, Senegal with him and fellow students for a term abroad.

Any time I ever think about him, I think of his smile and innocent chuckle. He was always very amused and open minded to learn about the evolution of the worlds of his students. During our time in Senegal, he opened our eyes to things we would never have experienced by staying on campus.

The running joke of our time in Senegal became “ana Lifongo?” which means “Wherr is Lifongo?” in Wolof (one of the native languages of Senegal). He was often running late to class because he would get caught up in a conversation with anyone and everyone about anything. Professor Vetinde was always in a good mood. If he ever was in a bad one, he never showed it.

I happened to be back on campus about three months ago and was lucky enough to catch up with him. It was completely by chance because he happened to still be around at 3:00 on a Friday afternoon. So thankful for that time. We ended up talking for at least a half hour.

Youwill be missed, Professor.
Merci pour tout ce que tu as fait pour moi et tous les autres élèves.