John Granville (FCRH ‘97) was killed on New Year’s Day in Khartoum, Sudan, where he was working as a democracy and governance officer with the United States Agency for International Development. He was 33.
At the time of his death, Granville was a Democracy Fellow with World Learning and USAID. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, he monitored and evaluated USAID’s Office of Democracy and Good Governance’s Strategic Plan for Sudan. Among other efforts, he distributed radios to the people of South Sudan so they could hear USAID broadcasts.
Granville joined the Peace Corps after graduation from Fordham, spending two years in the African nation of Cameroon. While there, he taught English and helped a village build its first school.
After his assignment ended in 1999, Granville returned to Buffalo, where he and another former volunteer started a business that sold furniture and crafts made in Cameroon. He returned to graduate school at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., receiving a master’s degree in International Development and Social Change in 2004. He earned a Fulbright Fellowship in 2003.
Granville was “doing God’s work” at the time of his death, said U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, who represents the area of western New York where Granville’s family lives. He is survived by his mother, Jane, of Angola, N.Y., and his sister and brother-in-law, Kathleen and Sean McCabe. The University will announce funeral and memorial arrangements as they are released.
