Prof. Francis K. A. Allotey passed away on 02.11.2017 in Accra, Ghana. Prof. Allotey, as he was affectionately called, was the first Ghanaian Mathematical Physicist and became the first to head the Mathematics department of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). He had keen interest in the development of Science, Technology and Mathematics in Ghana and Africa.
He was born in Saltpond, Ghana and became a friend after he learnt i wanted to pursue mathematics in the university. He will always send me messages to meet with him whenever he was visiting KNUST during my undergraduate studies. We'll meet Prof. Andam and talk about politics, science, their education at Princeton and Newcastle Upon Tyne. We will talk about Ekumfi Atakwaa and Saltpond. Of course, Prof. Andam passed away 10 years before your departure.
Upon completion of my undergraduate studies, i had an European Union scholarship to pursue graduate studies in Germany. Although i was excited, i couldn't afford the plane ticket to Germany. So, I sent him a message and informed him about my predicament. He replied immediately with "...I will buy you the plane ticket to Germany." This is how i arrived in Germany to complete a graduate studies in mathematics and I am very grateful.
Throughout my graduate studies including doctoral studies, I kept in touch with him. On one of his trips to Austria in 2013, we met in Vienna (approx. eighty minutes from Linz by train) and enjoyed the Viennese culture. Whiles in Ghana in February of 2017, i visited him before departing for Austria. I fondly recall his last words before bidding goodbye in his house, "...i''m getting older but i hope to see you before the year ends." Alas, the end of the year is come and the icy cold hands of death has been laid on you.
"O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?"
Fare thee well, Prof. Allotey! Fare thee well, my friend! Rest in Perfect Peace!
Update: An article has been published in Calcolo dedicated to him:
A stable space–time finite element method for parabolic evolution problems https://doi.org/10.1007/s10092, 2018.
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