By Andrew Ovie Oddiri 

Mr Austin Edward Egeregor, a pioneer senior staff of the Delta Steel Company,  Aladja Delta State,  passed, on November 18 2023 aged 74 and was laid to rest in Los Angeles USA on December 14, 2023.

A product of St Malachys College Sapele, St Aquinas College Akure and the University of Ibadan, Austin Egeregor had a corporate career which spanned the public and private sectors in Nigeria and the United States of America.

Upon graduation with a B.Sc in Economics, University of Ibadan in 1972, Austin Egeregor was recruited as a graduate trainee by the old Barclays Bank Lagos, direct from Ibadan as a member of the first group of University graduates to start the graduate trainee programme. After a few years with Barclays in Lagos , Austin Egeregor joined SCOA, the  French Trading conglomerate as a sales accountant.

Egeregor then obtained a government scholarship to study for the Masters in Business Administration, MBA, at Pepperdine University, a private University in Malibu  California, USA. On his return to Nigeria and in his fulfilment of his Scholarship obligations, he worked in the Federal Government-owned Delta Steel Company in Aladja Delta State. 

Egeregor retired from the Delta Steel Company as an Assistant General Manager and  went back to the United States on an immigrant visa to begin a career in the public services of the State of California. He was a state official in the Los Angeles County Department of Public and Social Services between 2002 and 2006. In 2007, Egeregor was appointed a Professor of Business Administration in the Los Angeles Community College and retired in 2018. Austin Egeregor was a very brilliant man,  as can be attested to by his gaining a professorship in America.

But Egeregor’s brilliance showed in early life. Circumstances made him to leave St Aquinas College in early 1966, the year he was to take his West African School Certificate examination. As he was required to enrol in a Secondary School before being put up for the examination, he  tried to gain admission into some  schools in the old Mid West Region. He did not succeed until 6 months to the WASC examination registration. He was accepted by Edokpolor College, Benin City which was not one of the best known Secondary schools in Benin at the time.

Egeregor sat for six subjects, the minimum subjects required and he passed  all six subjects in “A” grade and obtained Grade One West African School Certificate , WASC.  It was the first time a product of Edokpolor College had a Grade One in WASC His Edokpolor College record stood for decades. 

Mr. Austin Egeregor was the best friend at stages and in long spells to those he met at school, in University and during his corporate career. He had the unique and wonderful knack of having a close relationship with the families of his friends.

Such was the strong personality, friendly attraction and friendly disposition of Egeregor that even after long periods of absence from his friends, running into years, his old friends, classmates and colleagues gravitated towards him in renewed close relationships.

He was a jolly good fellow, in whose presence and company, one-on-one and in a group, which  you always had stories originated by him,  rib cracking jokes and laughter. He passed at age 74, is survived by a wife Kome, and three children, Dafe,  Edirin and Ovie. Mr Austin Egeregor will be sorely missed by his immediate and extended family and his friends and colleagues. 

May the soul of Mr Austin Egeregor rest in peace.

Andrew Ovie Oddiri, 

Friend and classmate of Austin Egeregor (1961-2023).