Oladepo Adeoye Alao Adenle, the 6th child of Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Samuel Adeleye Adisa Adenle I and his Olori, Deborah Adeyoyin Asande Adenle on March 13, 1942 at Osogbo in South Western Nigeria. He lived the entire years of his elementary through high school at home in Osogbo where he attended Osogbo Grammar School, graduating in 1961. 

Dr. Adenle would later attend the famous Ibadan Grammar School under the legendary principal, Archdeacon Alayande, for his Higher School Certificate. He had his University education at Nigeria’s premier institution, the University of Ibadan, where he majored in Geography with subsidiaries in Geology & Economics. A love for Geology would later have him study privately for the General Certificate of Education in Physics and Chemistry (while working as a senior staff member at Ife Library) which finally enabled him pursue, first, a Masters in Geology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and a Doctorate in Hydrogeology at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. 

His professional life saw him through a stint at the University of Ife Libraries, a period that opened his path to Florida through a Graduate Assistantship in his original field of study while working at the university libraries. He would return to Nigeria as he had promised Professor H.A. Oluwasanmi, the university vice-chancellor to work for the libraries for about the same period of time for which he was granted a study leave from his library job. He would return to the States to pursue the doctorate degree a little over a year later. 

Dr. Adenle’s career in his specialization in Water Resources was a very rewarding one as he carried out major water resources studies and projects both for the Federal Government especially in the Northern part of the country where he worked on a major study of abandoned borehole projects. His consulting firm, with offices at Ibadan, Wukari (old Gongola State) and Chenchenji (old Kaduna State) handled various jobs at State Government level. 

Over in the USA to where Dr. Adenle and his family returned in 1988, he was employed as Head, Africa Program at Las Vegas, Nevada with Mifflin Associates, an environmental and hydrogeological consulting firm. He also participated in various projects, including the major Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, representing the interest of the State of Nevada against that of the Federal Government which has long coveted to have a corner of the state as its location for spent nuclear wastes. The work included the effects that the depository would have on the underground water – among other things -for up to hundreds of years.  

[UPDATE: Till date, the U.S. Govt has failed in her various efforts to “make Nevada a wasteland” as Nevadans love to proclaim. CAVEAT: Writer is obviously pro-Nevada.]

Dr. Adenle’s contribution to water resources efforts in Nigeria included a 3-year posting to Abuja from the USA by the World Bank as “a foreign expert”(!) based at the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to help formulate a Water Policy for Nigeria. He also worked for 4 years with the EU-funded Water & Sanitation … (WSSRP) program as Osun State Coordinator based at Osogbo. 

Depo Adenle celebrated 51 years of marriage to Tola (nee Adamolekun) this past January. They got married in 1970 at St. Stephen’s, Oke Aluko, Ondo, a “most unconventional event” as late Bishop Akintemi (then Canon Akintemi) noted: Depo was from Osogbo while Tola was from Iju in old Ondo Provincial hinterland, facts known to the [then] provost from the two surnames: he knew that the Ataoja, though very senior to him, was an Andrian like himself, as alumnus of St. Andrew’s College, Oyo are known to this day, while his wife had been a long-time friend of an Adamolekun Female. 

After discovering neither of us worked at Ondo, he dropped his pen and announced he could not conduct the wedding ceremony as we must have been “running away from something” but after we explained that as both of us were workers at the University of Ife, conducting the ceremony there would call for us inviting everybody because during those university days in the late 1960s and early 70s, everybody knew each other, and excluding anyone from a not-common event like a wedding would mean enmity declared! 

 Iju (my home town), for same reason was out as I was related to most families in the small town with (then) a single Anglican Church, and ditto – our preferred choice – the University’s Chapel of Resurrection, perhaps the glitziest Christian wedding place at Ibadan: my brother was the Registrar (Nigeria’s first) of the University while Dr. Adenle’s older brother was the Medical Director for the university’s Health Services. 

The same casual, though hard-nosed approach characterized most decisions of our 51 years of marriage; it might have been difficult but friends and/or families on both sides eventually accepted us for the way we lived our lives. 

We’ve been very blessed, especially with four wonderful ladies: Gbemi, Joke, Denrele and Abake, all already pulling their weight in their chosen professions. And even greater blessings are our seven grandchildren: Ore, Gbenga, Damilola, Yinka, Segun, Seyi and Seun.  

Also surviving Dr. Adenle are sisters (including Mrs. Dewunmi Ojo); brothers (including Engr. Deremi, Dr. Bisi, Dr. Dewale, Engr. Kunle, and Engr. Bukoye Adenle), cousins, and many others in the extended Adenle Royal Family within the larger Oluawo Ruling House of which he served as Head from 2010 to his death.  

Dr. Adenle belonged to many professional & social organizations in Nigeria & the United States, including the Geological Society of America (GSA) and the Ibadan Polo Club where he served as Social Member (Social Secretary) in the early 1980s. 

Depo was always good company who loved to regale, especially younger people, with tales of old not just to talk of the supposedly good old days but loved to enjoy the shock of the tales.  

A man of deep faith in God, he was a man of his words and a very devoted family man whom ALL his children adored, and grandchildren loved. In his personal and social interactions, he lived by what he always preached: a ministry of forgiveness. 

God works in mysterious ways. Ore Adedeji’s university graduation is later in the summer, but one of her grandfather’s wishes to see a grandchild’s university graduation came true when Gbenga Ogunmola proudly posed with us as a Howard U graduand on May 8. A Family member who saw the picture we took with the new graduate was buoyed by the happy and proud grandfather’s look in the photograph – bright and cheerful, but as in whatever situation, Depo bore his health challenges with dignity and great strength. He fought gallantly to the end. Exactly two weeks after the graduation picture, he joined the Saints Triumphant. 

Now that he’s changed mortality for immortality, we pray God will count him among His own. 

TOLA ADENLE 

May  26, 2021.