News & Events
City Tech Mourns Loss of Student in Iraq
Segun Frederick Akintade
The New York City College of Technology community mourns the death of student and National Guardsman Segun Frederick Akintade, 34, in Abd Allah, Iraq, on Thursday, October 28, 2004.
A U.S. citizen and Brooklyn resident from Nigeria, Mr. Akintade was described by a neighbor in a November 2 Daily News article as “a sweetheart of a man, very kind, very polite. He wasn't born here, but he loved this country," added the neighbor, who broke down in tears when told of Mr. Akintade’s death.
“The New York City College of Technology community was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Army Specialist Segun Frederick Akintade,” said President Russell K. Hotzler. “Born abroad, Mr. Akintade, like many of our students, came to this country to seek a brighter future. He was well on his way, graduating in 2003 from City Tech with an associate’s degree in computer science and having begun his bachelor’s degree in computer systems before his unit was called up and sent to Iraq.
“In his honor, we will be flying the flag in front of our Klitgord Center at half-staff. I speak for all of us at City Tech when I express my sympathy to his family, friends and neighbors for this tremendous loss.”
Mr. Akintade, who was serving with the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment based in upstate Utica, was killed when his unit was hit by a roadside bomb and shot at by guerrillas, according to military officials.
In May, Mr. Akintade's infantry regiment made news when it rescued civilian hostage Thomas Hamill of Macon, Mississippi, after the trucker escaped from a farmhouse north of Baghdad. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) honored the unit for rescuing Hamill. At the time, Schumer noted that 11 members of Mr. Akintade’s battalion who participated in the rescue were new U.S. citizens.
Computer Information Systems Professor Hong Li, with whom Mr. Akintade took three classes, remembered the day when all of the students in one of the classes said goodbye to him and wished him well in Iraq, adding that they looked forward to his return.
“He promised us that he would definitely come to see us when he got back,” Professor Li added. “He was a very fine young man, polite, handsome, respectful and a hard worker with a good sense of humor.”
Li also remembered that her data structure class later wrote a computer program that simulated an exercise based on what is known in mathematics as the Josephus Problem. “In the simulation,” she said, “the students had a group of soldiers that included Mr. Akintade surrounded by an overwhelming force and only one of the soldiers can survive. The exercise follows a set of rules and a random number generator then decides which one will escape. In the simulation, it turned out that Mr. Akintade was the lucky one to make it out alive. We were all so happy that we literally cheered and hoped that he would be okay, if he ever ran into trouble in the war. Sadly, fate had something else in mind. God be with him.“
