OBITUARY: Rev. Emmanual Agyem-Frempong, 69, Passes On

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

The death of Rev. Emmanuel Agyem-Frempong was reported at the Yale University Teaching Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, on February 23, 2011. He was 69 years old.

Dr. Samuel Agyem-Bediako, an industrial scientist resident in Maryland and son of the deceased, said that his father had briefly taken ill and died of natural causes.

Born at Bechem, Brong-Ahafo Region, on September 28, 1941, to Mr. Samuel Kwadwo Fofie Agyem, a postal service worker, and Madam Alice Afua Nsiah, a farmer and homemaker, the Rev. Agyem-Frempong attended Bechem local schools. He would later obtain a Licensure in Theology at the Trinity College, University of Ghana, Legon-Accra, and the Bachelor of Arts degree in Industrial Chaplaincy from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He would also obtain the Master of Liberal Theology degree from Indiana University, Indianapolis.

As an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), the Rev. Agyem-Frempong, also affectionately called “Papa Yaw Agyem,” ministered to congregations across several regions of Ghana, including the Accra New Town Presbyterian Church, Koforidua District Assembly, Tema-North, Takoradi and Kumasi-Bantama. However, it was in his capacity as the Industrial Chaplain of the Tema Industrial Mission, in Ghana’s leading port city, and as a clerical representative of the Christian Council of Ghana that the Rev. Agyem-Frempong appears to have registered the most lasting impact on his congregants, colleagues and acquaintances. In the latter capacity, the deceased sat on the managerial boards of several industries and settled occupational disputes as part of his pastoral duties.

Those who knew him quite well, described the Rev. Agyem-Frempong as a man of principles, a disciplinarian and a dedicated leader. For instance, the Rev. Yaw Asiedu, of the Harlem, New York, Congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, the largest of its kind in the American Diaspora, described the deceased as a perennially “affectionate man who was not easily moved to anger.” Rev. Asiedu, who also fondly and emotionally recalled spending three months as a pastoral attaché and mentee of the Rev. Agyem-Frempong at Kumasi-Bantama’s Peyer Presbyterian Church in 2006, added that the deceased freely gave of his quite remarkable breadth of knowledge. “He was my father and elder brother during the three months of pastoral attachment that I spent with him,” Rev. Asiedu said and added with a deep sigh of wistfulness, “God’s work suited him best.”

The Rev. Dr. Charles Gyang-Duah, of the Bronx, New York, Ebenezer Congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the first and former clerk of the General Assembly of the PCG, also fondly recalled his 1977 pastoral understudy work with the Rev. Agyem-Frempong at the Tema Industrial Missionary Station. “It was my very first pastoral outing, and the Rev. Agyem-Frempong was the ideal mentor to work with.” Dr. Gyang-Duah also added, “That elder brother of mine was unquestionably honest, diligent and all smiles.”

Other than his son Samuel, the Rev. Emmanuel Agyem-Frempong is survived by three other adult-children, namely, Mrs. Hagar Bortsie-Ansah, of Bronx, New York; Mr. Frank Agyem-Kontor, of Takoradi-Ghana; and Mrs. Alice Kwakye-Ampong, of Accra-Ghana, as well as his widow and wife of 49 years, Mrs. Cynthia Agyem-Frempong (nee Sarpong).

Also surviving the deceased are two siblings, namely, Madam Afua Adwubi, of Bechem-Ghana; and Dr. Adu Agyem, of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana.

Funeral arrangements will be as follows: There will be a laying-in-state and viewing of the mortal remains of the Rev. Emmanuel Agyem-Frempong and a memorial service at the Epiphany Lutheran Church (Bronx Ebenezer Presbyterian Church of Ghana) located at 302 East 206 Street and Bainbridge Avenue, Bronx, New York, on Friday, May 6, 2011 from 2pm to 9pm. Shortly thereafter, traditional funerary rites will be held at 1211 Brook Avenue, Bronx, from 10pm to 4am.

The mortal remains of the Rev. Emmanuel Agyem-Frempong will be flown to Ghana for final funerary rites and burial in his hometown of Bechem, Brong-Ahafo Region, on Saturday, May 21, 2011.

For further information contact any of the following phone numbers: 347-350-4968 or 347-449-5663; 410-610-5740; 718-483-9553; 718-994-9299.

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