Olufunso Oke - Online Memorial Website

Remembering You today as always dear funsho. Continue to rest in peace.

Funsho where does death always take the valuable ones ? You will not be missed ,you are are been missed already. You were he epitome of life caring, loving, joival,full of ethusiasim,i miss you there frinds. Our friendship started in oue secoundary school days in form 4, i still get a good laugh all by myself when i think of the fun we had as youths,you chanllenged me intellectually and your passion for knowledge was something else. my heart goes to your dear wife and children that God will be a comfort to them.
Fear well and rest in the bossom of our Lord. 

i have somehow avoided doing this and have tucked this painful reality in a part of my heart that allows us to go on and manage the pain and sadness....

However, as 2016 ebbs away, I find myself writing this to honor you and to express my deepest condolences to your loved ones especially Enyonam, your lovely girls, Your parents and siblings!

Funso! You were a true friend to all your friends! We became friends through my husband and you have been a faithful friend ever since! Your sensitivity, your generosity, your sense of humor, your excellent diction, your genuine interest in everyone's story, your ability to engage people on any subject, your principled stand for the causes you cared about...

This one is hard but in the days right after your passing...with the many questions I asked of God the Almighty in the midst of regrets of not maintinaing contact as diligently as you did and so many 'had I knowns', l got reassurance that this was a homecoming for you to your Heavenly Father,

So I bid you farewell, as we struggle to go forward because we whose lives you have touched in multiple ways will truly miss you....with the peace and assurance that you are in the bosom of the Almighty smiling down at us...bittersweet though it may be!

i am grateful I met you and with hindsight, privileged to have known you and been friends with you for it is clear, you were an angel on assignment! Rest in perfect peace, bro! 

Funso, 

i cannot believe I am writing this for you. Fare thee well my friend. May you rest in the perfect perfect  peace of the Lord. 

Funsho, this is indeed a rude shock ! Words elude me..... I remember wondering on that day why so many people put up your picture as their dp and just assumed it was your birthday..then I thought to myself, 
, Funsho's birthday is not in December..Nothing could have prepared me for this.

Funsho you were down to earth and extremely intelligent .A bit eccentric but kind and humane. You had such a hearty laughter that came from deep within you. I can't believe you are truly gone . I wish I had spent a longer time chatting with you the last time we chatted. 

God indeed knows best. May He console your entire family and strengthen them all at this time. May God grant your kind soul eternal rest amen

 

This has been very difficult to write... Particularly deciding on the tense to use! Funso, you were kind, considerate, witty, loyal, quirky, intelligent, knowledgeable yet very understated and not one to hugging the spotlight. Receiving the news of your passing was shocking, unbelievable and oh so painful. It hurts to know you won't be buzzing/calling me with updates, questions, queries, hailings, encouragements and the occasional tirades. I will miss you dearly but I will hold on to every memory of you my dear FunsoFX. My thoughts are with your family. May God comfort and uphold them at this very dark moment. Rest in peace my dear brother and friend, Ogbeni Funso Oke.

Funso, the ever lively, ever positive and ever jovial chap....hard to believe you are gone.   I will always remember your witty style, I even hard to ask Kwame why you send brief and seemingly uncompleted text messages way back and Kwame said 'that is  Funso'. 

May the good Lord grant your family the fortitude to bear your departure and may your soul rest peacefully. Amen

Adieu, great guy.

Bro!
This certainly wasn't the plan; nevertheless, we must accept we won't see you on this side again.
Thank you for those (very) late night text and BBM messages that consistently I inquired about work, making suggestions, prodding Deji and I with ideas and feeding us with positivity regarding Nigeria's future and encouraging us to keep contributing.
Your mind worked like none I've met, sharp and differently witty.
I remember the trip to Ghana to watch the Nations Cup and our disappointment after Nigeria was beaten by Helen's Ghana ... so many good memories.
How about CA memories?
Wish I saw you last Wednesday hours before you passed but wasn't allowed to....
All I can say now is 'Sun re o Funso'.
 

Funsho (I know it’s Funso), what can I say?


It feels so unreal and I still wish I could wake up tomorrow and find out this was a very bad dream. All the same, I am still writing this believing that somehow you can read this.  I thank God for knowing you for so long that I can’t even remember since when (the late 80s?)– and that we stayed in touch properly (sometimes sporadically but always meaningfully) and even more so very recently – this is what I am holding on to.



You lived everyday so fully - now I look back, it was as if every moment was precious to you and so you kept them meaningful – I look back again and everything seems to have humor, light heartedness and sensitivity.  You were the nice and sensitive guy and not shy to be that person. And many times I wondered how you stayed so positive all the time.

I have so many memories to share, including our very recent long hang-out in Lagos in June, but I have chosen when you visited DC with your “list”. 

And it had absolutely nothing to do with shopping – it was a “to-do list” and this was not just about museums and monuments. But real regular everyday things to do – I learnt a lot from that – not to take little things for granted.

I still remember kayaking – at the time I was not even sure what that was! You did it!  I was so worried about your doing that and you would say “live a little”. Also, the memory of your attempt to skate will stick with me forever, maybe I should call it your determination to stay standing while holding the railings – I didn’t let you live that one down for a while – that was the only time I had ever seen you “scared” – counter intuitive since you were fearless with kayaking and life!

And how could I ever forget the Red Sox game?? – who else will make another person (a clue less novice like me) go to watch a live Red Sox game on a mid-week day, after work and with a long commute including an interstate train ride, participate in the Mexican wave and later admit “I didn’t understand either oooooo” ?

I will miss your kindness, dry wit and amazing effort to bring friends together or connect them; keeping things light hearted no matter what is going on, and always thinking of how to help others – that was a gift from God.

I am praying for the Lord who can do exceedingly above all we can ever imagine or hope for, to comfort your family. He is our healer and I believe He can heal any pain.  Your memories live forever in our hearts and in our conversations.  Even though it hurts so much and makes us so sad right now, we shall continue to talk about you until it makes us smile and laugh again.

To Enyonam, your daughters, your siblings and your parents - my prayer is for God to comfort you always. He is your strength.

 

.. my brother, sun re oo! Rest in peace in the bosom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

From your Nwanne Nwaayi (as you would always call me!)

Nwugo (Ifeoma).

Funso, I had not seen you since our days at University of Lagos.  I've bumped into Kwame a couple of times and asked after you.  When I heard of your passing, it was like a jolt of lightning.  My mind has been flooded with warm memories of you from our jambite days at Unilag.  You were your own man, always had a smile on your face and generally left people feeling happy.  

I don't know your children, but I want them to know that their dad was a wonderful genetleman.  Truly one of the good one.  I pray that your wife finds the strength to move on.  

You left us too soon. I am truly saddened.  Sun re. Sun re. Sun re. 

I got into work one day and Funso announced that he would henceforth call me Bisolchka. He explained that the Russians added the suffix "chka" to people's names as a term of endearment and therefore, he was adding it to mine. I rolled my eyes but he (as usual) ignored me and I became Bisolchka. And he became Funchka to me.  Over the years, I have put every achievement to the "Jumbotron" test and thought nah! Not yet. I wanted it to be something really grand so I could tell Funchka I remembered that email and how much it meant to me. Last year, during a particularly low moment, I started writing an Instagram post about Funchka's email, how it kept me going and how I was still looking forward to my "Jumbotron Moment". I thought he would be tickled that I still remembered. 

FX, my friend, my brother, my ever present cheerleader
You kept egging me on
Grow it, build it, win it, achieve it 
Now you won't be around to see it 
I would call and ask hey do you have a minute
Your answer was always sure come right over and you always meant it
I remember my last words to you barely a week ago
I wrote you a message get well soon bro 
I wish it had been I'll be there soon bro 
Yes, regrets of not keeping in touch as much as I knew I should 
But more so that you never knew just how much you meant
I should have told you as soon as I could
Good night true friend 
Sleep well, we shall see again in the end
When He calls

I thank God for the priviledge of working with you at  Sectrust. Thank you for being a wonderul soul and colleague. I will never forget the passion you executed when you believed in a cause. You did not care whose Ox was gored. Then there was the soft side you showed in your care for friends and their families. And I cannot forget your love for music and family. A true friend you were even though we had not seen in a while. You were very persistent in trying to check up on me. I thank you. How do l hope to carry on your legacy. In my little way, I guess by being sincere and true to all relationships. 
My dear Funsh Wunsh aburo mi atata sun re o.

I met Funsho in 2008 through Ifeoma while he was visiting Washington DC, we hit it off instantly, perhaps almost like old friends. In the intervening years we kept in touch via phone. Funsho would check in and we talked about family and even had a chance to exchange adventure ideas for his trip to my native Kenya.

Funsho was a really nice and thoughtful person who loved his family and friends. My friend though you left us so soon, I know your spirit of love, life entrepreneurship will live on forever through all that you touched.

May the almighty God keep your soul in eternal peace.

To Funsho's wife and children may God be your guide as you go through this most trying time and may the happy memories of Funsho never ever leave you.

Brian Kiragu, My wife Anne and our boys Jason and Jonas

When I first met you, Funso, in September 1982, we were in Form 1 in Navy Secondary School Ojo and you were simply known as Funsho Oke. Later you coached us that the correct spelling was Funso Oke [drop the “h”]. A precursor, I think, of your nationalistic pride.

Since then, you’ve been affectionately known as: Function (Fxn then FX), Funshy Wunshy, Funshboss, Mr. Oke etc. in no particular order, depending on when, and in what context people knew you.

I’ll leave tributes to your passion for your family, or professional excellence, or the redress of injustice,  to others to enumerate,

I’m just here speaking as your friend. One of many.

Funso, you invested in your friends, and didn’t seek a return.

When we were young undergrads at Unilag,...year after year.... You would bring a cake to my Mom, every Christmas..., baked by your Mom, who was  probably badgered by you, until she baked it. You were essentially a kid. Yet, you recognized that Mothers are the glue between families, and you  invested the time and the effort, to nurture a lifelong friendship.

That’s who you are. Who you were.

You were funny. Decades later, I still chuckle when I remember your short story “The Fecal Epiphany”. To prove  that I didn’t care for Football, I moved to Canada.  Perhaps to make the same point, you became a Spurs fan.

That fell flat because you became the only true Spurs fan I’ve ever met.

Being your friend has worked  like this for me: Friend...pause...resume..pause...resume…etc. . No matter how many times I stepped out of your circle, when I stepped back in, you welcomed me with wit, warmth, and some of the best verbal and intellectual jousting on God’s earth.

 

I haven’t been close friends with anyone, for as many years as I have with you Funsh...

I miss you brother.

Funso, our dear Funso, how can you be departed. Your wit, your sense of fairness and decency, your hard work and élan, your camaraderie and incredible friendship, your love of family and self… your patience with our dysfunctional country, your belief in the little guy and people?

 

I am so heartbroken I can barely find the words to express what your loss means to me, to our little community who you glued together all these years.

You were my egbon and my aburo for real. I trusted your judgment many times over mine. Your willingness to give of yourself the maximum, your readiness to leave what you were doing to fight by another’s side because they had real need.

My dear friend, you taught me much and now you have taught me deep hurt. I hurt in a way I can barely believe, and trying to function as we must seems an almost churlish task. But there is your work still to be done. You left behind a loving family and we must see to it that they lack nothing that your presence wouldn’t have ensured.

 

In all, I am comforted…. Comforted that in our time together, you left a great legacy, a legacy of unshakeable friendship and wonderful character, of a wonderful family man and kind and loving man, of strength and good humour and good will… you sir, lived a beautiful life, that enriched all that it touched.

Adieu dear brother!

This unfortunate news still keeps me in shock...I have gradually accepted that this is not a bad dream but indeed sad reality.
I've known Funsho since Nigerian Navy Secondary School where we both started together and were in the same class for many years. We shared some interesting memories and connected again during our work life.
Funsho was always a gentleman and a very decent chap who always oozed positivity and almost always had that smile and silly grin on his face as he took on the world head on in his own special way.
I pray the good Lord will grant him eternal rest and grant courage to his family to bear this loss.
Ahoy son, onward together, sail on...
 

My Oga!

Even in death you remain my oga.

Acccepting your demise is difficult but i take solace in the fact that you have gone to a better place.

At this point all i can do is pray for enternal rest unto your kind and gentle soul and strength for your family to bear this great lose.

You were a 'good man' and i shall continue to remember you as the good man you were.

Thank you for the impact you made in my life.

Rest well my Oga!