The late media veteran, Professor James Wolo, held many positions including Deputy Minister of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism
Barely have the tears dried from the eyes of members of the Liberian Media community, when they were again hard-hit with the news of the passing of a veteran journalist.
The Liberian Media Community had just laid to rest one of its strong, innovative and talented members—Mr. Lawrence Togar Randall—on Saturday when a few hours after the sad ceremony, news began to filter-in that Professor James Wolo had passed. He died at the John F. Kennedy Medical Hospital in Sinkor.
The Daily Observer was told that the Late Professor slid into a coma for a week and did not recover.
Speaking with this newspaper late Sunday evening, Mr. K. Abdullah Kamara, President of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), extended deep sympathy on behalf of the Union for the irreparable loss to the bereaved family.
“Professor Wolo was a very resourceful person to media development in Liberia. He was always around the PUL whenever we needed him. He didn’t stop one day giving us good advice on how to run the affairs of the Union,” Mr. Kamara said, adding: “We will really miss him dearly.”
The PUL President said that Prof. Wolo, who was a senior faculty member of the Mass Communications Department of the University of Liberia, was so close to the Union that he participated in almost every major undertaking.
“As recently as last month, he had agreed to serve as one of the facilitators of a workshop organized by the PUL and the National Peace Ambassador, Rev. William R. Tolbert III. Unfortunately for us, he didn’t take part as he had just fallen ill when the date for the workshop arrived,” the PUL President stated.
The Union will release a statement today on Prof. Wolo’s passing.
Before his passing, Prof. Wolo, who was in his early 70s, served in many media capacities including Former Deputy Minister for Administration, Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism; Former Director-General, Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS); and Former Executive Producer, LBS.
He also served as a former presenter of the LBS post newscast daily inspirational program, “Thought for Today”; Former Community Relations Head, Liberia Rural Communications Network; and Former Producer, ELCM (Catholic Radio now Radio Veritas).
Other posts he occupied included Former Administrator, Save the Children, UK; Former Executive Producer, Mercy Corps Peace building Radio Project; Former Head, Media Monitoring and Development Unit, United Nations Mission in Liberia; Former Editor-In-Chief, Liberia News
Agency ( LINA); CEO, Media 2000, a media training and development firm; Lecturer, Communications and Public Affairs, Liberia National Police Training Academy; Lecturer, Development Communications, Mass Communications Department, University of Liberia; and Chairman of the Board, Association of Liberia Community Radio.
Of the many social media users who have been pouring in condolence messages on Facebook, one stated that the late Professor was also a Lecturer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ run Foreign Service Institute (FSI), which trains Liberian diplomats for the field.