Hundreds gather in Minnesota to honor Kenyan American community leader Paul Morande

MOUND, Minn. — By the time the homily began, nearly every pew at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church was occupied.

Hundreds of mourners had gathered on Sunday, Nov. 8, for the Paul Morande memorial, honoring the Kenyan American telecommunications engineer and community leader whose influence extended from Minnesota to schools and families thousands of miles away in Kenya.

The church’s sanctuary, which seats 800 people, was nearly full. Outside, parking spaces were scarce. Inside, relatives, friends, former colleagues and members of the African immigrant community came together for an emotional memorial that lasted about three and a half hours.

There were tears, laughter, prayers and applause. An open casket offered mourners an opportunity to say goodbye. A two-way video connection linked the gathering with family members in Kenya, reflecting the transcontinental relationships Morande had spent decades nurturing.

Morande died Oct. 29 at his home in Minnetrista. He was 64.

He had lived for more than four years after being diagnosed in September 2022 with stage 4 cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the heart. Doctors initially gave him only months to live.

For his wife, Beatrice “Betty” Morande, those additional years became one of the most precious gifts the family received.

“We’ve had time. We were gifted with time,” she told the congregation. “As much as we have lost Paul today, we mourn, but we are also grateful that we were gifted time.”

When her husband was first diagnosed, she said, the family prayed that he would survive another year, then long enough to see their youngest son complete high school.

He reached those milestones, and the family kept praying.

“I know Paul did not survive his cancer, but so many of our prayers were answered,” she said.

A community that became family

Morande’s death brought together people whose lives had intersected with his in different ways: as a husband and father, a trusted friend, a mentor, a colleague, a church member and a leader of organizations serving Kenyan immigrants.

For more than two decades, he helped build community institutions in Minnesota while maintaining strong connections to his birthplace in Kenya.

He served as chairman of Mwanyagetinge, a Kenyan community organization, and the St. Charles Lwanga Welfare Association, which supports Catholic families and the Swahili-speaking Catholic community. The association’s choir provided much of the music during the memorial service, singing primarily in Swahili. He was also involved in the Minnesota Kenyans International Development Association, known as MKIDA.

Through MKIDA’s collaboration with Books for Africa, Morande helped organize shipments of educational materials to schools in Kenya. The initiative has sent hundreds of thousands of books, and another shipment was being planned at the time of his death.

Dr. Gerald Nyachae, a close friend who helped lead the memorial, described Morande as someone who could strike up a conversation with a stranger and leave with a new friend.

On family vacations, he recalled, Morande would sometimes disappear from the group, only to be found talking animatedly with someone he had just met.

His encouragement was equally memorable.

“The right time will come. Keep going,” Nyachae recalled Morande telling people facing difficulties.

Nyachae also remembered the many medical appointments Morande attended, often accompanied by Betty, including early-morning journeys to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

Even during treatment, Morande remained attentive to the troubles of others, he said.

A friend who believed in justice

Dr. Edwin Bogonko, a former president of the Minnesota Medical Association, struggled to contain his emotions as he remembered a friendship spanning roughly a quarter-century.

Bogonko wiped away tears during his tribute, recalling the day he first met Morande.

Morande had shaken his hand and refused to let go, telling him, “I know you.”

What initially seemed like an unusual introduction became, Bogonko said, the beginning of a deep friendship.

They shared meals, lengthy telephone conversations and discussions around Morande’s kitchen table.

Only after his friend’s death did Bogonko fully appreciate how many other people had experienced the same generosity of time and attention.

Morande believed strongly in fairness and in the responsibility of those with influence to protect others, Bogonko said.

“He held a fierce belief that the mighty should not be allowed to trample on the weak.”

Bogonko also recalled a particularly frightening moment during Morande’s illness, when doctors feared he had reached the end of his life.

As those around him struggled with the news, Morande remained calm.

“He was smiling,” Bogonko said.

The physician remembered holding his friend’s hand as Morande assured him he would be all right.

“I’m not going anywhere yet,” Morande told him.

The following day, Bogonko recalled, his friend was sitting in the family room entertaining visitors.

Such moments, he said, reflected the extraordinary optimism with which Morande confronted his illness.

The colleague she never met

One of the memorial’s most revealing tributes came from Clara Carr, a Chicago-based supervisor at Sinch, the telecommunications company where Morande worked.

Despite speaking with him almost daily for three years, Carr had never met him in person.

Their relationship developed through telephone calls, video meetings and conversations about work, family and life.

Morande was known among colleagues as “the professor” because of his willingness to explain complex technical problems and patiently guide others.

His habit of becoming absorbed in troubleshooting assignments also earned him the nickname “Houdini,” Carr recalled.

Behind the humor was a colleague whose warmth and generosity left a lasting impression.

Carr said she spoke with Morande on the morning of Thursday, Oct. 29, the day he died.

“I wish I would have told him I loved him and that he made his mark on me,” she said. “I will carry Paul around in my heart.”

A father to more than his own children

The family tributes revealed a man whose role as a father extended well beyond his four children.

Morande’s children — Sandra, Stephanie, Maria and William — took turns reading his eulogy, tracing his journey from a childhood in Kisii, Kenya, to a career in telecommunications that took him to several countries before he settled in Minnesota.

Born June 18, 1962, Morande was the eldest of 11 children. He studied physics at the University of Nairobi and worked in telecommunications in Kenya and abroad before immigrating to the United States with his family in 1998.

His children described a father who valued education, faith, personal responsibility and service to others.

They also recalled his love of music, reading and the long conversations he maintained with friends and relatives across continents.

Morande’s mother, Jovencia Nyaboke Morande, also addressed the congregation in Ekegusii, the language of the Abagusii people of western Kenya, who make up the majority of Minnesota’s Kenyan immigrant community. Her son Fred Morande summarized her remarks in English, saying she was grateful to the family, friends and Minnesota community who had cared for Paul and supported him throughout his life.

Morande, who described himself as about 20 years younger than Paul, recalled how his older brother helped raise him while their parents worked in the family business in Kenya. He also praised Betty’s devotion to her husband throughout his illness.

Their sister, Jackline Moraa, remembered Paul as a protector and provider who helped pay school fees, offered shelter to people in need and mentored younger relatives.

“He was a rainbow to our family,” she said, drawing on a quotation attributed to Maya Angelou. She urged mourners to continue supporting Betty and the children, just as they had supported Paul.

His nephew Okeyo Masese described an uncle who showed up for virtually every important occasion in the lives of younger family members.

He attended school milestones, including preschool graduations, visited relatives who moved away from Minnesota and welcomed children into the extended family.

“He was always there,” Masese said.

Morande was not particularly interested in the latest technology, his nephew recalled, joking that he might still be using an old Nokia 3310 phone if his children had not intervened.

But he understood the telephone’s most important purpose: staying connected.

“He always called you before you could call him,” Masese said.

Another family member, Izzy Mayaka, remembered childhood visits to the Morande home, where cousins played outside and were greeted by an uncle whose smile and laughter made everyone feel welcome.

The memories were small, everyday moments, but together they illustrated the family life behind Morande’s public accomplishments.

Encouraging another father through cancer

For Morande’s son-in-law, Fafa Yacour, the relationship went far beyond the formal ties of marriage.

After marrying Sandra, Yacour said, he was embraced as a son.

He remembered addressing Morande as “sir” before the wedding, only to be told afterward that such formality was unnecessary. From then on, he called him Papa.

Yacour shared a particularly moving account of how Morande helped his own father in Ghana.

Not long after Morande was diagnosed with cancer, Yacour’s father also received a cancer diagnosis.

Even while confronting his own terminal illness, Morande offered practical advice and encouraged the family in Ghana as they navigated treatment.

“He was there every day to encourage my dad to get treatment, even while dealing with his own terminal diagnosis,” Yacour said.

He recalled seeing Morande in the family’s living room encouraging his father despite the seriousness of his own condition.

Yacour credited that support with helping his father, who is still alive, through his illness.

He also recounted a heartbreaking moment involving his young son, who bears Morande’s name, Nyamumbo.

After Morande’s death, when the family arrived at his home, the child asked where his grandfather was.

Yacour told him that Papa had traveled.

The wife who stood beside him

Dr. Henry Kerandi, Morande’s primary physician, praised the determination with which his patient approached treatment.

But he reserved particular admiration for Betty, who accompanied her husband to medical appointments and kept track of his care.

Kerandi recalled calling Morande to ask about medical results, only to hear him summon his wife.

“Mama Sandra gives me all the parameters at her fingertips, all of them,” Kerandi said, using the affectionate name by which he knew Betty.

The physician credited her dedication, alongside Morande’s optimism and commitment to treatment, as an important part of the family’s ability to navigate four years of illness.

He urged the community to continue supporting Betty and the children.

Betty, in turn, used much of her own tribute to thank the people who had supported the family.

She recognized coworkers who helped cover her responsibilities when she needed to be with her husband, friends who brought meals during hospital stays and relatives who traveled from other states and countries.

Despite the demands of caregiving, she said, she had been able to continue working and remain present for her children because others had stepped forward.

“When a problem is big, it takes a village,” she said. “You’ve been our village.”

She also remembered Morande’s extraordinary optimism.

Whenever she asked how he was doing during treatment, his response was often the same: He was doing great.

When she asked about his stress level, he answered, “Zero.”

Betty recalled being astonished by that answer, particularly when she herself was struggling with worry and sleepless nights.

“That was his outlook,” she said. “He carried this illness with grace.”

About a week before Morande died, Father Peter Richards visited the family at home. Betty said her husband understood that his condition had worsened and accepted what lay ahead.

She also recalled an earlier hospital crisis when Richards interrupted a retreat to pray with the family and baptize one of Morande’s grandsons in the intensive care unit.

For Betty, those experiences reinforced the family’s faith and gratitude for the additional years they had shared.

Faith, laughter and a final farewell

The memorial’s religious service was led by Catholic clergy, including Father Gabriel Waweru, a Kenyan-born priest serving in the Diocese of Duluth.

Waweru drew on Scripture and his memories of Morande to reflect on the uncertainty of life and the importance of spiritual preparedness.

He recalled a visit by Morande and his family to northern Minnesota, where he showed them the region’s enormous man-made mining excavations.

The priest also drew laughter with a story about two campers who woke during the night and began discussing the stars and the Milky Way, only to discover that their tent had been stolen.

The story illustrated his message that people can become so absorbed in the details of life that they overlook what matters most.

Waweru urged mourners to remember Morande’s faith, generosity and service to others.

Throughout the memorial, speakers returned to the same qualities: a man who made time for others, who valued education and family, and who continued offering encouragement even as his own health deteriorated.

The service also underscored the breadth of the community he left behind, stretching from the Twin Cities to other parts of the United States, Kenya and Ghana.

For Betty, the gathering was a reminder that her family would not face the future alone.

“We have a larger family,” she told mourners. “We are loved more than we can explain.”

Morande is survived by his wife, Betty; their four children, Sandra, Stephanie, Maria and William; son-in-law Fafa Yacour; two grandchildren; his mother; and other relatives.

A requiem Mass is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 12, at 1 p.m. at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church, 2385 Commerce Blvd. in Mound. Burial will follow in Mound.

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