Sylvester Modupe Broderick, Class of 1963

Sylvester Modupe Broderick ’63 died November 17th, 2022. He was born on September 15th, 1941, in Sierra Leone to the late Dr. Sylvester Modupe Broderick, Sr. ’24 and Fernanda Nicol Broderick.
Modupe entered Otterbein in 1959 and graduated in 1963 with a double major–Bachelor of Arts in History/Government and French. At Otterbein, Modupe participated in the Men’s Glee Club; he was Jump Week King, and a Fraternity brother at Pi Kappa Phi (Country Club) fraternity. Along with this he was a part of the “O” club and played tennis.

After graduating from Otterbein in 1959, he went on to graduate studies for a masters in French at University Laval in Quebec City. He later realized that his own education was lacking in an appreciation of African Studies and embarked on a Ph.D. program in African Studies in 1970, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in Anthropology–African Oral Narrative Traditions and Linguistics, as well as African Written Literature, mainly of English and French expressions.

Modupe enjoyed social gatherings and traveling, discussions on literary studies, African and African American History, and Socio Linguistics; and developed an eclectic appreciation for musical genres, particularly classical music, jazz and Afro Beat.

He is survived by wife Amelia Fitzjohn Broderick, two children, Vania Ayodele Lesana Broderick- Dursun and Ahovi Modupe Broderick, sons- in-law Ismail Dursun and Kevin Marshall-Broderick; grandchildren, Zara and Troy Dursun; his sister: Ore Awoonor-Renner ‘67; and his nephews Julian ’99 and Lauris ‘00.