Fresno community mourns the loss of Oliver Ezenwugo, a man of integrity and purpose | Opinion

This week, both the County of Fresno Board of Supervisors and the City of Fresno issued proclamations recognizing the contributions of Oliver Chukudi Ezenwugo to the area. A businessman, philanthropist, husband, father and community leader, Ezenwugo died on Feb. 21 at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. He was 65 years old.

These recognitions tell the story of a man who started in Fresno with so little, but stayed true to himself, even after he had become very successful.

I met Oliver shortly after moving to Fresno in 1992. He was young, unmarried, and because he comes from the same part of Nigeria as my husband and me, came to regard us as his older brother and sister, and his family was part of ours.

His Odyssey mimics most immigrants. He came to the United States for an education and to better his life. Although from a middle class background in Nigeria – both his parents were educators – his country of birth offered him a very bleak future and held no promise for bright youngsters like Oliver.

He arrived in the U.S. in 1981 and attended Fresno Pacific College before transferring to Fresno State, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice.

When we met Oliver, he was a porter at the Fresno Yosemite International airport, working the early morning shift, and every time I traveled, he was there to offer help.

If he felt any discomfort when friends saw him in a menial job, he never showed it. Oliver proudly went about his work. He had his plans and would not let anything distract him from it.

He affirmed this in many conversations and presentations to African youth forums and in community discussions; an immigrant did not have the leisure of saying no to a job opportunity and cannot be choosy. They must do whatever they need to survive, including doing work that others may consider beneath them. Most importantly, he stressed, an immigrant must stay true to their dreams and remain focused.

Oliver was very focused, and in a few years, his path to the American dream was smoother. He got married to a woman who, like him, was an immigrant. He completed his master’s degree and earned a doctorate in Psychology in 2018 from Northcentral University in Scottsdale, Arizona. Along the way, he and his wife had four sons – all graduates of Edison High, a Fresno Unified magnet school. Two graduated from Fresno State like their parents; the middle two attended UCLA and UC Berkeley respectively.

Like most immigrants, he set very high standards for his family and encouraged his kids to aim high, both academically and in their personal lives – not just for their own personal benefits, but for whatever communities they were a part of.

“To him, life is never just about personal success. It’s about what we build, what we pass down, how we prepare the next generation to carry forward what we started,” his second son Sidney, a second-year student at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, said.

Oliver lived what he preached in his work as the manager of Universal Health Network and Systems in Fresno, where he provided behavioral health education and counseling to people living with addictions and other mental health issues. To him, it was about giving back. He worked around the clock, accepting the most difficult and complex cases from the county’s probation department.

He believed it was about securing the people he counseled second and third chances – just like America had given him a chance at the start of his journey many years ago.

In the Central Valley’s African community, Oliver was an oddity – a soft-spoken man who said very few words. No one can remember a time when he lost his temper or raised his voice or was rowdy, or spoke unkindly to or about anyone. He was a man of unwavering integrity and principle. Friends and family speak of his strong moral compass and how he never judged anyone.

Now as we huddle in our community, bewildered by his sudden death, everyone has a theory about the meaning of Oliver’s life. “It is that good people go early,” many have offered. A majority insist that It is about how he set an example of how immigrants must live exemplary lives.

Oliver lived a life of purpose, and his legacy in Fresno will be long lasting. The County and City of Fresno agree.