Onyebuchi at 70: Living for Others

Sonnie Ekwowusi

Dr. Michael Kelleher turns 70. For the most part of his 70 years, Dr. Keller had preoccupied himself rendering selfless service to others. Dr. Keller is an American. He came to Nigeria in September 1975. On coming to Nigeria, he adopted the Igbo name Onyebuchi (meaning “who is like God”). It is surprising that Onyebuchi abandoned the comfort of his home in American to come to Nigeria. Already at the tender age of seven Onyebuchi’s main dream was to be a missionary in Africa and render selfless service to Africans. Actually in the summers of 1974 and 1975 before heading for Nigeria, Onyebuchi had the great fortune of learning how to run leadership/sports camps under the tutelage of Bill Hildebrand at the Heights Center in Washington D.C. United States.
After Onyebuchi arrived in Nigeria he first went to live in Ibadan. And during the school vacation of that year he organized a two-week Irawo Leadership Camp for young boys between 9 to 12 years at the sports field of the University of Ibadan. The Camp centered on character and leadership building through sports. The boys were able to use the sports fields because Onyebuchi had developed a friendship with the Director of Sports of the University. A few months before the close of school the University of Ibadan had hosted the Nigerian University Games (NUGA) and Onyebuchi, who was at that time completing his Ph.D at the University, represented the University in javelin throw competition.

Onyebuchi’s first six throws were all around 160 feet, but on the seventh and last throw he heard the surprising shout from the crowd, “Oyinbo!” (meaning “white man”, literally “yellow man” in Yoruba). As Onyebuchi looked up after throwing the javelin, the javelin was sailing 200 feet through the air enough to earn a silver medal for the university. So Onyebuchi won a silver medal for the University in Javelin throw.

Well, back to the Leadership Camp. Each day of the camp was centered on a key virtue or quality of a leader based on the acronym LEADERSHIP: Loyalty, Excellence, Action, Diligence, Empathy, Responsibility, Service, Honesty, Initiative and Perseverance. There was a daily seminar on each virtue and the virtues were developed ‘in situ” during the skills sessions (of soccer and basketball) and the team sports. The yearly Leadership Camp gave birth to a weekly tutorial and character training program at the Irawo center for the boys when they reached secondary school.
From 1987 onwards, Onyebuchi left Ibadan for Nsukka having been offered a teaching job at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. On getting to the University campus, he rented an apartment on Margaret Cartwright Street. He converted the spacious living room of the apartment into a mini-lecture room in order to assist the fresh students of the University with their university academic work. Onyebuchi would organize freshman orientation programs for first year students according to their area of studies: pharmacy, civil engineering, electrical engineering , etc. He got some upper classmates to guide the seminars and share their experiences with the younger ones. In addition he would also organize weekly sessions to help the students build virtues and their spiritual lives.

One of the students immensely grateful to Onyebuchi for the quality university education and lofty ideals which he imparted in him, has now become a professor of Pharmaceutical and Analytical Chemistry. His name is Professor Chimezie Anyakora. Prof. Anyakora graduated in Pharmacy from University of Nigeria but today is a Professor of Pharmaceutical and Analytical Chemistry thanks to Onyebuchi

When Onyebuchi’s living room was becoming too small for the increasing number of students eager to participate in the educational programs he was offering to the students ex gratis, Onyebuchi started looking for a bigger apartment off campus where an actual small university residence could be set up. This was how the Uhere Study Centre came to be established . It was the brainchild of Onyebuchi. Onyebuchi wanted the center to focus on academic excellence and leadership, and so he invited some of the best students of the University to apply to live in the Centre. A number of them were engineers and they became future Valedictorians of the university. The Centre also offered tutorials in the more challenging courses especially for the freshman.

In addition periodic seminars for the students and professors were organized at the center. One such seminar was based on the “Brain Drain”, that is, on young Nigerian graduates fleeing Nigeria to seek greener pastures abroad. Usually the Vice-Chancellor of the University or some University Professors are invited to deliver the seminars. After the seminars Onyebuchi would escort them to their cars, and they would turn to him and say, “Onyebuchi this center is the hope of Nigeria.” Years later, in the early 90’s when the Uhere Study Center had been fully established, Onyebuchi initiated the Saturday morning football training program for boys ages 9-12. The program had three components: math tutorials, virtue seminar, and soccer …with the proviso, “No math, No soccer.” Undergraduate students participated as tutors and counselors.

Why did Dr. Michael Keller choose to be called Onyebuchi?. First, he has great devotion to the three Archangels-St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael. St. Michael symbolizes the victory of good over evil, and he has been widely represented in art through the ages. St Michael means “Who is like God?”. Small wonder Dr. Kelleher chose the Igbo name Onyebuchi which in Igbo means “Who is like God”. To Onyebuchi, we are in the hands of God: Creator, Sustainer, and Provider. He brought us into existence from nothing(creation). He continues holding us in existence (sustenance); and, while loving everything He has made, tenderly cares for us (providence).

To help in this providential activity He created angels. Each human being has a personal guardian angel and there are myriad angels watching over the created world. Onyebuchi has been aware of the guidance and protection of the angels throughout his life. He recalls that one day while walking along a road near the Nsukka market a madman was approaching him from the opposite direction. Initially he thought the madman could be a bit belligerent, but the man was smiling. Before Onyebuchi knew it, the madman came up to him and exclaimed “Ugochukwu” (God’s eagle). Onyebuchi had never used the word before and realized some time later that the madman must have been greeting his guardian angel.

Born on April 13, 1951 in Ellensburg, Washington, a small town in the middle of a valley surrounded by ranches, Onyebuchi is the second of nine children, seven boys and two girls. His dad managed a small business and was actively involved in leadership positions in business, education, and politics. His mother attended daily 6:30 Mass. He started following her at the age of six and continued this practice through secondary school and university. At that age of seven his main dream was to be a missionary in China or Africa, but at the same time he loved science and sports. By the age of eight he had a chemistry and physics lab in his bedroom, carrying out experiments, building model electric motors and trying to read up on the theory of the phenomena he was observing.

From that age till eighteen his life was founded on academics, sports and daily Mass. In secondary school he was the quarterback of his American football team, point-guard on the basketball team and threw the javelin on the track team winning a bronze medal at the state championships with a throw of 190 feet.

He did his undergraduate in chemistry at the University of Notre Dame, 1969-1973. He encountered Opus Dei in January, 1970. He met St. Josemaria, the founder of Opus Dei, in Rome in April, 1972 where he asked the saint a question on how to accelerate the apostolic development in the United States. While the question was being asked, St. Josemaria got up from his seat and walked over to Onyebuchi and blessed him on the forehead.

Onyebuchi was accepted to start graduate work in chemistry at University of California Berkeley (a university that had the most Nobel Prize winners in chemistry in the world). He was due to start graduate work in September, 1973, but delayed admission by a year to teach the sciences at a new high school, the Heights, in Washington D.C. that was set up by members for Opus Dei. During that summer he learned how to run Academic/Leadership Camps for boys in middle school under the tutelage of Bill Hildebrand. In October, 1973, he received a message from St. Josemaria, asking if he would like to go to Nigeria.

So he said goodbye to Berkeley and applied to the University of Ibadan. In September, 1975, he landed in Ibadan and joined up with a small team of guys at Irawo University Center, the first center of Opus Dei in Nigeria. The main work of Opus Dei is to provide guidance to individuals who desire to seek holiness in and through their daily work. This involves growth in virtue; building a deep life of prayer; carrying out one’s professional work with the greatest human perfection, for the love God, and with a spirit of service to the community; while drawing others close to God through examples.