By Ken Chiwendu
One of Nigeria’s finest professionals in the engineering field,Engr. Enoch Amakiri Job George ,has joined his ancestors. He was aged 94,
An indigene of George Ama in Okrika Rivers State ,his passing was announced by the family .ln a joint statement signed by Engr, Bentley George, Chairman , Burial Steering Committee and Mr Amakiri E.George ,son of the deceased,the family said their father will be remembered by the many lives he touched and great legacies he left in engineering in the world.
Engr. Enoch George was a man of intellectual fortitude. He was an expert in soil mechanics and was associated with the design and construction of the first urban motorway ever built in Lancashire , United Kingdom.
An engineering masterclass and passionate believer in the greatness of the profession,Enoch George was an indelible symbol of national growth and development . He was the pioneer Chief Engineer and Head of Estate and Works Department of the Rivers State College of Science and Technology ( now Rivers State University ). Im this capacity,he was involved in the design and construction of the prodigious infrastructural facilities that lifted the status of the institution.
He produced a comprehensive master plan for the young college with hospital, library and all other necessary facilities.
Enoch George was a pioneer of local content development in Nigeria.Through Enoch George Associates,a consulting firm he founded,he played pivotal roles in opening of doors that previously shut out Nigerian experts and firms from the energy industry in Nigeria . He achieved this by excellence in his practice.
In his quest to leave a lasting legacy to the coming generation,he endowed the Enoch George Professional Chair in Geotechnical Engineering ( EGCGE ) at the University of Port Harcourt.
A Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Fellow of the British Institution of Civil Engineers , Fellow of the British Institution of Highways and Transportation Engineers,Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers and Fellow of the Nigerian Geotechnical Association among others.he was a great example of an industrious Nigerian worthy of emulation.
In recognition of his contribution, Enoch George was honoured internationally and nationally by various organisations, including a prestigious Award by the British Institution of Civil Engineers for attaining 50 years in the profession continually and his community , the Dokube Royal House of Okrika with an investiture of the title of Amatelimabo of Dokube (Corner stone and builder of the community).
