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ROLE MODEL: Okon, here with
his only nephew, Jiano Okon Wilson Briggs, mentored
other black engineering students.
Courtesy Iquo Okon |
okokon okon III, ’89,
MS ’91, an engineer and entrepreneur who friends
say was a mentor to many young African-American students
at Stanford, was murdered on March 29 in Atlanta. He
was 36.
Okon’s body was found near a parking garage at
the office where he was doing consulting work for Elemental
Interactive, a software firm. Atlanta police said he
was beaten to death, but no motive was evident.
Okon’s death spurred a torrent of remembrances
and an outpouring of anger, grief and shock, especially
from a tightly knit group of African-American Stanford
alumni who knew him. Maurice Rabb, ’90, ms ’93,
says Okon was “the spiritual center” of
a group of black men at Stanford in the late ’80s
who came to be known as the “Bruhs.” Loquacious,
whip-smart and energetic, Okon was “living at
another level,” says Rabb, who roomed with Okon
at Ujumaa and remained a close friend. Full of ideas
and possessing a boundless curiosity, Okon taught himself
French and Portuguese, was a connoisseur of food and
music and had “broad palates,” according
to Rabb. “He was not an accidental person.”
A software engineer who co-founded two companies, Okon
was a descendant of Nigerian chiefs. Brian Bryant, ’88,
says he was an inspiration to young black men. “He
helped you square your shoulders,” and even had
t-shirts printed with the words “Positive Black
Male.”
Joel Martin, ’91, recalled Okon as an important
figure on campus for black engineers in particular.
“He showed that it could be done.”
Dozens of Stanford alumni from all over the country
attended the funeral in Atlanta, says Martin, including
some “who had disappeared from the face of the
earth.”
“He was the last person you would expect to die
from a violent death,” says Rabb. “He connected
with people, and the people he touched never forgot
him.”
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