Society-Obituary-Dr. Sawyer
Former Liberian Interim Leader Amos Sawyer Dies At Age 76
MONROVIA, Feb. 17 (LINA) – Former Liberian interim President, Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer has died at the John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, family sources have confirmed.
The veteran Liberian politician who has survived two brain surgeries died as a result of cardiac arrest (heart failure) on February 16, 2022. He was 76.
The former Interim leader of Liberia and also an academician served as President of Liberia from November 22, 1990 to the 7th of March 1994. He was voted in by 35 leaders representing seven political parties and 11 interest groups.
Amos Claudius Sawyer was born in 1945 to the blessed union of Mr. and Mrs. Abel and Sarah Sawyer. He is survived by his wife, Comfort Sawyer and children; Juah and Marena Sawyer.
The Sawyers were a prominent family in Sinoe County, with free African-American ancestors who came as colonists to what was called “Maryland in Africa”, founded by the Maryland Colonization Society.
Sawyer was educated in local schools and was a 1966 graduate of Liberia College (now the University of Liberia) He traveled to the United States for graduate work, earning M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Northwestern University in metropolitan Chicago, Illinois.
After his return, Dr. Sawyer worked as an academic, but also became an activist and politician. He ran for the position of Mayor of Monrovia, the capital, as an independent candidate
After the 1980 coup d’état, Sawyer returned to academia for a time, taking a position as a professor of political science at the University of Liberia. In December 1980, he was appointed Dean of the College of Social Sciences and acting director of the University.
He was a founding member of the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA) and in 1983 founded the Liberian People’s Party.
In late August 1990, an emergency conference was held in The Gambia by a delegation of 35 Liberians representing seven political parties and eleven interest groups.
At the conference, participants voted Sawyer as interim president and Bishop Roland Diggs as vice-president, to establish a government.
The last public portfolio held by Dr. Sawyer in Liberia was the Chairman of the Governance Commission, which was set up under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2003.
Other information leading to the internment of Dr. Sawyer will subsequently be announced by family members.
LINA IAS/WSG
