2008.01.08: January 8, 2008: Headlines: COS - Cameroon: Sudan: Obituary: Diplomacy: USAID: Buffalo News: Cameroon RPCV John M. Granville worked an ocean away, trying to forge a lasting peace in war-torn south Sudan
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2008.01.02: January 2, 2008: Headlines: COS - Cameroon: Sudan: Obituary: Diplomacy: USAID: New York Times: Cameroon RPCV John Granville Shot Dead in Sudan :
2008.01.08: January 8, 2008: Headlines: COS - Cameroon: Sudan: Obituary: Diplomacy: USAID: Buffalo News: Cameroon RPCV John M. Granville worked an ocean away, trying to forge a lasting peace in war-torn south Sudan
Cameroon RPCV John M. Granville worked an ocean away, trying to forge a lasting peace in war-torn south Sudan
Granville, 33, had been scheduled to return to Western New York for a week in early February. Instead, his body arrived Sunday to a police escort and memorial service at Buffalo- Niagara International Airport. His funeral will be Wednesday in St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Orchard Park. Granville moved to Khartoum in September, after working from Kenya since 2005 to implement a peace agreement between Sudan’s north and south that ended more than two decades of civil war. He lived in an apartment with his beloved dog, a Rhodesian ridgeback named Cooper, which was flown to the United States and is being adopted by Granville’s sister, Katie McCabe. His funeral will be on the third anniversary of the signing of the 2005 peace agreement, noted Katherine J. Almquist, assistant administrator of the bureau for Africa of the USAID. One of Granville’s responsibilities in Sudan was organizing a population census. “John was one of our brightest stars,” said Almquist. “His intellect, his people skills — he had just the right touch in dealing with sensitive issues.” Granville’s immediate USAID su- pervisor, Stephanie Funk, said he connected easily with African villagers and ministers of state. “I think it came from a basic instinct to respect everyone equally,” said Funk.
Cameroon RPCV John M. Granville worked an ocean away, trying to forge a lasting peace in war-torn south Sudan
A most favored son
Granville’s generosity to his family lives on as loved ones prepare to bury brightest star
By Jay Tokasz NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 01/08/08 6:44 AM
John M. Granville worked an ocean and more away from his native Buffalo, trying to forge a lasting peace in war-torn south Sudan.
But those nation-changing efforts didn’t prevent the foreign service officer from caring for his family back home. Granville bought a house in Evans for his mother and uncle to share. He researched medical care for her debilitating arthritis. He called or e-mailed home almost daily.
Granville’s death Jan. 1 has elicited condolences from around the world, and those who worked closely with him recalled his deft diplomacy in a troubled part of the globe.
At the cozy Evans home, filled with paintings and furnishings Granville had sent from Africa, his family remembered a dedicated, quiet striver who would have been annoyed by the current attention.
Granville, who worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, was shot to death while returning from a New Year’s party in the Khartoum home of a British diplomat.
His car was cut off by another vehicle and came under fire, according to the Sudanese Interior Ministry. Granville was hit by five bullets and died after surgery. His driver, Abdel- Rahman Abbas, also was killed.
Family members said they still don’t know why Granville was targeted or who is responsible for the shooting, which is being investigated by the FBI and the U.S. State Department.
“The only thing I can think about, and the only thing I’ve given any thought about, is that John won’t be here and what a loss. I haven’t thought beyond that,” his mother, Jane Granville, said Monday.
Granville, 33, had been scheduled to return to Western New York for a week in early February. Instead, his body arrived Sunday to a police escort and memorial service at Buffalo- Niagara International Airport.
His funeral will be Wednesday in St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Orchard Park.
Granville moved to Khartoum in September, after working from Kenya since 2005 to implement a peace agreement between Sudan’s north and south that ended more than two decades of civil war.
He lived in an apartment with his beloved dog, a Rhodesian ridgeback named Cooper, which was flown to the United States and is being adopted by Granville’s sister, Katie McCabe.
His funeral will be on the third anniversary of the signing of the 2005 peace agreement, noted Katherine J. Almquist, assistant administrator of the bureau for Africa of the USAID.
One of Granville’s responsibilities in Sudan was organizing a population census.
“John was one of our brightest stars,” said Almquist. “His intellect, his people skills — he had just the right touch in dealing with sensitive issues.” Granville’s immediate USAID su-
pervisor, Stephanie Funk, said he connected easily with African villagers and ministers of state.
“I think it came from a basic instinct to respect everyone equally,” said Funk.
Jane Granville said she last spoke with her son Dec. 31, as he prepared for his New Year’s Eve out. He joked about the old tuxedo “with ruffles” that his mother thought he had taken abroad with him, she said.
“This is the first Christmas he did not come home,” she said.
Granville decided to have his vacation coincide with his mother’s February surgery, so he could tend to her while she was mending.
It was typical of Granville, said McCabe, his sister.
“When he came home, he changed things, he made things happen,” she said. “He would make it his goal to make life easier for everyone here.”
Granville bought the foreclosed- upon house online in the summer of 2006, figuring that once it was remodeled, the open floor plan would make it easier for his mother, who has severe rheumatoid arthritis in her legs, to get around. The house also had room for his uncle Dave in an upstairs apartment.
Later, he shipped custommade furnishings from Africa, including tiles, a dining room table and a front door made of solid mahogany. The latest shipment arrived a few weeks ago. Jane Granville was holding off on opening it until her son arrived for his visit.
Granville discovered the artistry of Cameroon villagers during a stint in the Peace Corps in the late 1990s — a calling he had first considered as a teenager at St. Thomas Aquinas School in South Buffalo.
“He talked about the Peace Corps in eighth grade,” said Jinna Gallivan, a family friend.
Granville went on to Canisius High School, paying the tuition in part by working as a life guard and other odd jobs, family members said.
After school, he took Japanese classes through a program at Canisius run by the University at Buffalo.
A high school trip to Spain and France further stoked his passion for travel and learning more about the world.
At Fordham University, he persevered in studying for a year in France in 1996, even though a terrorist’s bomb exploded in a Paris subway train and the university’s French program shut down that year.
The Granville family has received condolences from all over. Sen. Charles E. Schumer sent a letter; Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s office called; friends from Cameroon sent e-mails. Fellow Peace Corps volunteers and USAID colleagues showed up in Evans to greet the mother Granville had talked so much about.
“I’m just hoping and praying I can be as strong as I need to be to meet all these people who came from all over the world,” said Jane Granville.
One of Granville’s closest friends traveled from Indonesia to Khartoum to Buffalo. Others have shared stories with Granville’s family of how he paid for African kids to go to school.
A Georgia man who met Granville only briefly called to say he was so impressed by the man that he would contribute to the Granville Memorial Scholarship fund at Canisius, said Jane Granville.
Wherever he went, family and friends said, he impressed.
“He was exactly how you would want Americans to be seen in other countries,” said Gallivan, who visited Granville when he was living in Nairobi, Kenya. “He was the person you would want representing your country.”
jtokasz@buffnews.com
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Story Source: Buffalo News
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Cameroon; Sudan; Obituary; Diplomacy; USAID
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