Emeritus Professor Oladipo Olujimi Akinkugbe invited me, through Debo Adeosun, the Director, University Advancement Centre, to see him on 28th April 2020. Debo had earlier in the day visited Professor Akinkugbe and he told me of so many glowing things our highly respected academic father said about me, and how he has had to settle some disagreements involving ranking officers of the University and their Vice-Chancellor So, it was that I had to race to The Little Summit at Iyanganku to honour the invitation. I met Professor Akinkugbe in his bedroom and he was apparently unwell. As I entered and prostrated to greet him, he started to shower encomia on me. He spoke about university governance in general and expressed his sadness at the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). In one of our earlier discussions on the matter I had requested him to contact the Chief of Staff to the President on possible ways of arriving at a truce between the Federal Government and ASUU. He informed me of the likelihood of an overseas trip to either South Africa or Germany to seek medical attention. He further informed me that he had total confidence in the medical personnel at the University College Hospital Ibadan but that they are handicapped in terms of facilities. I must have spent about an hour of good quality time with Prof Aakinjugbe before leaving. I am yet to come to terms with the grim reality that the special one I respectfully called Baba Akinkugbe is no more, four weeks after his transition to eternity. My last telephone conversation with him was exactly 10 days before his demise; he had called me to inform me of his safe arrival back in Nigeria after a short trip outside the country. He told me he was still recuperating in Lagos and that he would return to Ibadan the following week and that he would let me know. I eagerly looked forward to hearing back from him. Unfortunately that was not to be. I received an enquiry from a senior academic of the University of Ibadan mid-afternoon of Monday 15th June 2020 asking me whether I have heard about the transition of Baba Akinkugbe. I dismissed the satanic news but had to put a phone call to Professor Isaac Adewole, a protégé and former student of Professor Akinkugbe. He informed me that he too was unaware of such a development but he promised to inquire. He reverted soon after only to confirm the sad and most unfortunate bad news. Spontaneously, I broke into tears which conveyed the depth of my anguish. I later went to the Department of Anatomy where Baba Akinkugbe’s remains were to be deposited. I met members of the Akinkugbe nuclear family and some senior colleagues there, including Professor Isaac Adewole, Professor Temitayo Shokunbi and Professor Abiodun Ilesanmi, and the Head of Anatomy, my friend, Dr Olatunde Owoeye. Meanwhile, the social media was already awash with the news of the transition of Professor Oladipo Olujimi Akinkugbe, without waiting for an official announcement by the family. It was indeed the end of an era. I was a candidate for the position of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan in 2015. I was advised to contact Emeritus Professor Akinkugbe to give me a reference letter. I was hitherto aware that he had performed the same role for at least three former Vice-Chancellors of the University of Ibadan at one time or the other in the past. I booked an appointment to see him at home one Thursday morning in March 2015 to lay my humble request before him. He accepted to do the recommendation instantly. We had a very friendly and robust discussion lasting nearly two hours. He told me that he was highly impressed about my pedigree, especially during my five year tenure as the Head of the Department of Geology, two-term stint as Dean of the Postgraduate School, and two-term tenure as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic). He had apparently been following my career closely without my knowledge. He claimed, perhaps not without justification, that only very few academics within the Nigerian University System were more experienced than my humble self. I felt very proud of this ringing endorsement. He told me further that in the interest of justice and fairness it would be nice for someone from the Faculty of Science of the University to be given a chance to serve at the level of the Vice-Chancellor.