Prof. Laing has been a friend and colleague for a very long time. I first met him fairly early in the life of the University of Ghana. The University College was then a small community and it was possible to get to know most members whether they were teaching or research staff, students or support staff. He was a student of Botany and we were then living at Achimota College, the temporary site of the University. But at the beginning of 1952/53 academic year, young Laing and I were among students transferred to the partly-finished first student Hall of residence at Legon, the permanent site of the University. It was fun living in those days at Legon and having our meals and sports, lectures and practical classes at Achimota. We even had to be taken to Achimota for Christian worship. We became closer when we found ourselves in the University College Protestant Church Choir.

On graduating from the University of Ghana, Laing and I were awarded postgraduate scholarships to Universities in England, Cambridge for him and Oxford for me. We kept in touch through academic, sporting and informal visits.

After obtaining our doctorate degrees in 1957 our paths diverged again, Laing to go back to the University of Ghana and I for a short postdoctoral research experience at the University of California. Little did I know that after only sixth months I would be asked to return to the University of Ghana!

The circumstances of our return to the University of Ghana were so strikingly different that, to many of us who knew him well and how capable he was, we were surprised he devoted the rest of his life to Legon and Ghana.

When I arrived back at the University of Ghana during the academic year 1957/58, a few months after the beginning of the year, Dr. Laing was one of the bright young men who had earlier returned from the University of Cambridge. Whereas by the end of February 1958, I had been offered a contract as Lecturer, Laing and the other Ghanaian from Cambridge had not yet been offered any contracts. The question that had arisen was whether they were to be employed at the University or at one of the research institutions or elsewhere. Those of us who had been on University of Ghana postgraduate scholarships or equivalent had assumed, from day one, that we were on a university teacher training program for the University of Ghana. Some members of the teaching staff at that time did not think so. Hence the situation in which young Laing had been caught. The matter had engaged the attention of the University Council and was a cause for concern to the University community, especially the younger ones. Was it a racial issue? Was it a political issue? Or was it another matter altogether which had not yet been identified?

Eventually, common sense prevailed, the need for a plan for the training of Ghanaian university teachers was acknowledged, and a new category of lectureship, Temporary Lecturer, was created. It was to be vacated as soon there was a regular vacancy in the department. The problem, whatever it was, was resolved and the University moved on. As far as I know, no further recruitment was made into this new category.

It was certainly worthwhile fighting for this gem of a Professor. Our common interests were identified and together we fought for improved systems throughout the various units that made up Legon Hall, the Faculty of Science and the University as a whole.

May His Soul Rest In Perfect Peace.