An Amazing Grace...
... Dr. E. Victor Maafo, SECU member-owner and volunteer.
Eugene Victor Maafo was born in Ghana. He witnessed the independence of his native homeland in the 1960's from Great Britain and the change of its name from the Gold Coast. As a young man, he immigrated to Durham, North Carolina.
As a pastor and preacher, Reverend Maafo has been a life-long advocate for faith and forgiveness. As a professor emeritus of economics at North Carolina Central University, Dr. Maafo has been a life-long advocate for reason and understanding. As a Black man in the South, he has been a life-long advocate for justice and was proud to help support the civil rights struggle in the American South.
As a member-owner, E. Victor Maafo has been a life-long advocate of the State Employees' Credit Union; famous for summoning SECU members at the 2013 Annual Meeting to all rise and join him in singing "Amazing Grace" - which they did with raucous, rousing enthusiasm!
On October 11, 2023, Dr. Maafo took a two hour trip to Greensboro, North Carolina to attend the Annual Meeting of the State Employees' Credit Union. At that meeting, he rose independently, to voice his concerns over the loss of mission and purpose at the Credit Union.
No one had asked that he attend, no one had written his remarks. Dr. Maafo understood faith and forgiveness, he understood reason, he understood fairness - he needed no coaching.
As a member-owner and as a
forever-and-always SECU volunteer, Victor Maafo had come to the meeting as a life-long advocate of fairness for his fellow SECU members. To advocate for a change of
heart, a change in direction at SECU... and he did just that. Dr. Maafo's advocacy was thoughtful, measured, and humble.
The following year on October 8, 2024, Dr. Maafo again returned to Greensboro for the SECU Annual Meeting, but he was prohibited by the SECU Board from speaking, as were all other SECU member-owners.
On January 4, 2023, Dr. E Victor Maafo fulfilled a life-long goal to become a citizen of North Carolina and the United States of America. [link].
As a fellow human being, Victor Maafo has been a life-long advocate for others - with exuberance and humility, with patience and tolerance, with joy and laughter.
February 11, 2025 would have been his 98th birthday; he didn't quite make it.
Dr. E. Victor Maafo was an "Amazing Grace" to his Country, to his community and to his credit union - SECU.
You can refuse to listen to a man, you can deny him the right to speak; but you can't smother his spirit and you can't crush his soul.
E. Victor Maafo, a great man? Yes! ... with the soul of a unicorn!
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound ...
ReplyDeleteand the angels protected him on his journey to his forever home, where the Son always shines ... oh Glory days!!
When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.
Maafo is our Mandela. The individuals on the secu board suck. Shame on them.
ReplyDeleteJourney well Grandpa. Please can someone contact his family members in Ghana. Thanks
ReplyDeleteQuite a tribute. Would be hard to find an advocate for today's SECU. It has lost its soul.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful tribute!
ReplyDeleteProud of you Dad.
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