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A former vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Emeritus George Benneh, has died.
The 87-year-old man died on Thursday at his East Legon residence in Accra.
The news was confirmed by a family spokesperson who said funeral arrangements would be announced later.
George Benneh is survived by his wife, Adelaide Mary Benneh, six children and several grandchildren.
The professor was Minister of State in the SMC2 regime, the AFRC regime and in the 3rd Republic.
He also held portfolios including land and natural resources, fuel and energy and served as finance minister in the Limann government.
He was also awarded the “Star of Volta” by President John Agyekum Kufuor and is also a papal knight of the Catholic Church.
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Professor George Benneh was born on March 6, 1934 in the small town of Jamdede, about one kilometer from Berekum in the Brong-Ahafo region.
His father was Isaac William Benneh, a politician during the First Republic under the government of Nkrumah. As a child, he spent his school vacation helping on a cocoa farm his family owned in Prusu.
On the way to the farm in the early morning, he and his family stopped on the way for a meal of palm soup as the trip was long.
Raised a Catholic, Professor Benneh received his primary and middle school education at Catholic Primary and Middle Schools in Berekum from 1941 to 1949, culminating in the Common Entrance Examination in late 1949.
He studied at Achimota School during his high school years from 1950 to 1956 where he obtained the GCE Ordinary Level (1954) and GCE Advanced Level (1956) certificates. In Achimota, his nickname was “Anago”, an allusion to his athletic prowess.
At the age of 14, while in third form, he led Achimota’s sports team to compete with Kings College, a well-known high school in Lagos, Nigeria. He also won the 800-yard run in the Interuniversity Games at the Accra Sports Stadium.
In 1957, he was one of 4 students who received the Shell Ghana Independence Scholarship for University Study at the University College of Ghana, then a constituent college of the University of London where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Geography in 1960.
In Legon, he was captain of the University of Ghana athletic team from 1958 to 1959. Between 1961 and 1964 he did his postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics, from where he graduated. got his doctorate.
Professor George Benneh is the author of over 13 books and pamphlets and 70 other publications on geography, environment, land tenure and land use, population, education and public administration.
He was appointed Commissioner of Lands, Natural Resources, Fuels and Energy from 1979 to 1980. At the same time, he was Minister of Lands, Natural Resources, Fuels and Energy.
Between 1980 and 1981 he was Minister of Finance and Economic Planning.
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