Friday 13 January 2017

EXCLUSIVE: Sisi Modupe Sagoe Loses Only Sister, Iyabo Durand


...How The Prominent Matriach and Foremost Educationist, Iyabo Durand Dies At 72
...The Life and Time of The Granddaughter of Legendary Billionaire,  Sir Candido Da Rocha

Prominent society matriarch and foremost educationist, Mrs. Iyabo Margaret Durand is dead. She died on Monday, 9 January 2017, at a private hospital in Lagos, after a protracted battle with a yet-to-be-disclosed illness. She was aged 72.
Durand was the co-founder of highbrow, Greenwood House School, Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, which is regarded as one of the most elitist schools in Nigeria.
Durand was an accomplished educationist and the proprietress of Greenwood House School Lagos. A native of Lagos, she was from the prominent Thomas family of Lagos Island. She was the only full sibling of Sisi Modupe Sagoe, the doyenne of textile business in Nigeria and one of the most formidable society grand matriarchs of the Nigerian society. It is pertinent to note that Durand’s step-mother was the grand-daughter of the late Candido Da Rocha, one of the business moguls who dominated the Nigeria’s business sector during the earliest part of last century.
Durand attended Anglican Girls' Primary School Lagos, then St. Louis Grammar School Mokola, Ibadan, where she was the head girl. In 1967, she went abroad to study the Montessori Method of Education, at St. Nicholas Training Centre in England. She studied for 0-5years, and then the advanced level. In 1975, she came back to Nigeria and started working with Corona Trust Council. She taught at Corona School Ikoyi for 25years after which she left to set up the Green Wood House School in 1995, with her niece, Ekua Titilayo Abudu,(nee Sagoe), a successful lawyer and chartered administrator.
The school started with 24 students at No. 8 Omo-Osagie Street, South-West, Ikoyi, Lagos. By 1998, the school had grown and had to take another building to accommodate the children. Within a relatively short period, the school grew to its maximum capacity of about 800 children and has maintained that number since.
In September 2003 the school moved to its permanent site at Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, which is a purpose built building with spacious classrooms, better facilities and expansive playgrounds.
Durand is survived by two children, Omolara Onalaja and Dayo Durand, and many grandchildren

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