Kofi George Konuah

Konuah was born in Kumasi, Ashanti to parents of Ga-Adangbe ethnic origin. He had his early education at the Government Boys' Schools at Cape Coast and Accra from 1910 to 1919 and proceeded to the Wesleyan Boys' School in Freetown, Sierra Leonne for his secondary education completing in 1925. During his final year in the school, he was made the head boy. He continued at Fourah Bay College and was a student at the college during Kwegyir Aggrey's visit when the college had its centenary celebration. Aggrey impressed upon Konuah the idea of taking up teaching as a career. He graduated from Fourah Bay College in 1928,with a BA degree from Durham University.[2]

Konuah first taught at Christ Church Grammar School and for a brief while at Achimota School in 1930.[1] Not too soon long after this, Konuah together with three others decided to set up a private school to cater for the educational needs of children who showed some aptitude for learning but whose parents could not afford to send them to the existing schools of the day.[1][3] They were James Akwei Halm-Addo, Konuah's mate at the Wesleyan Boys School and Gottfried Narku Alema and SamueI Neils Awuletey who were colleagues of his at Fourah Bay College. In July 1931, they founded the Accra Academy in a property given out by Madam Ellen Buckle.[4] Konuah served as the first Principal of the Accra Academy.[5][6] In 1946, he was awarded a British Council Bursary to study for a Diploma in Education at University of London.[1]

In 1948 he served as deputy to Nii Kwabena Bonne, then Osu Alata Mantse, on Nii Bonne's Anti-Inflation Campaign Committee, which was set up to demand a reduction in the prices of foreign goods in the country at the time.[7][8]

In 1952, he resigned his post at Principal of Accra Academy to become the second African member of the Public Services Commission. He was made Chairman of the Board of Governors of Accra Academy from 1954 to 1967. In 1955, Konuah helped establish the Ghana International School which he served as Chairman of the School's Board at a point in time. On the demise of Sir C.W Tachie Menson (the first African member of the Public Services Commission), Konuah became Chairman of the Public Services Commission in 1962. Konuah also served as Chairman of the Governing Council of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration from 1962 to 1969. He was also the first Chairman of the Ghana Mental Health Association. He served as the Chairman of the Society of friends of Lepers.[1][2]

In 1964, he was a member of a three-member presidential commission set up by Kwame Nkrumah to act as Head of State in case he Nkrumah was indisposed or could not act due to circumstances. Kojo Addison, Director of the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute and Nana Akyin IV, President of the Central Region House of Chiefs, were the other members of the Presidential Commission.[1][9]

After the 1966 overthrow of the Convention People's Party, he became a member of the political committee and the National Advisory Committee set-up by the National Liberation Council. He was Chairman of the Audit Service Board from 1969 and retired from the public service in 1974.[1][10]

Konuah was a lifelong congregant of the Anglican Church. He married Janet Bucchol and together, they had nine (9) children. Notable among them were, Dr. William Godson Bruce-Konuah, a medical doctor and politician who served as a Minister in the Busia government, and Brigadier General Wallace William Bruce-Konuah, a military officer who served as a military attache to Ghana's High Commission in Pakistan and Chief of the Ghana Army Staff.

He received the Order of the British Empire(1956) and the Companion of the British Empire (1960).[11][12] In 1963,when the University of Ghana honoured him with an honorary doctorate, he was amongst the first three persons chosen to be given that honour by the university.[13] In 1968, the National Liberation Council awarded him the Grand Medal(Civil Division) of the Republic of Ghana.

He died on 6 June 1996 and is buried in the forecourt of the administration of Accra Academy. Konuah is remembered for his exploits in providing an education for children who showed some aptitude but whose parents who could not afford to send their children to the existing schools of the day in his country,Ghana. He is also remembered as one of the initiators of the first privately founded school in Gold Coast and not only so but for the first time in the then Gold Coast a school had been founded without the help of any church group or denomination. The Konuah-Halm-Addo-Alema-Awuletey Lectures is held annually in joint honour of him.