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Born in Nigeria in 1955 to a well-educated couple (his father was a medical doctor, his mother a school teacher); his family fled during the coups of 1966, and emigrated to America. He (and his parents) became naturalized citizens in 1971. They settled in New York City.
He was raised as an Anglican (part of the Church of Nigeria).
Both of his parents died in January of 1982, as passengers on an Air Florida flight that crashed into the Potomac River just after takeoff.
U.C. Berkeley, B.S. in Chemistry awarded in 1977.
M.D. UCSF, awarded in 1981.
Internships, etc. to 1983.
He was approached in April of 1984 by recruiters from the Morrow Project. He put his affairs in order, and officially joined the Morrow Project in May of 1984. Project "field" training, as part of cohort 19, began in June of 1984.
There were about 50 members of their training cohort -- a mix of Project trainees for all the Project's branches.
At the end of the training with cohort 19, the members of team E-4 spent another three months training for their Engineer specialty -- learning to operate and maintain the Overland Train and other large vehicles, for example. They built a Project training camp in northern Nevada, and constructed an "expedient steel bridge" about 30 meters long.
Keep in mind that the housing at the camp they built was all double-wide mobile homes -- not exactly the Ritz.
After a week of rest, the team was brought to a Project hospital for a week of final tests, uncomfortable purgatives and flushings, and preparation for cryosleep. They were frozen over a couple of days in late July.