Hon. John P. Beh, Sr.

On behalf of the entire Gebrier Roberts family, I am saddened to convey our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Hon. John P. Beh, Sr. who left us for the great beyond on May 27, 2007. I first met Hon. Beh in 1969 in Sannequellie. He was the diamond commissioner at the time and he had gone to Gbarpa with his bodyguards to inspect illicit diamond mining operations there. I was a clerk on Town Chief Buntor creek and we had to run away from the Honorable Beh’s inspection team, abandoning our digging wares. Thereafter, I did not see Hon. Beh again until last year when I heard about his illness.

And the few weeks I spent with the Paryee at his bedside will be remembered for years to come. He told me a story one afternoon while we were watching a soccer game, his pastime. He said he had taken the Liberian Lone Star team to Brazil and won two games there. After the last game the Brazilian National Soccer Commission met with him and offered him US$400,000.00 for four of his best players. He did not accept the money. Then I asked him, “ Oldman, suppose you had taken the money, what would have happened”. “My integrity would have been permanently ruined, my son, and secondly I would have betrayed my players, my own children”, he said with frankness.

Hon. Beh never backed down when it came to speaking his earnest mind. He once advised me that if I went to Liberia, I must have a two-hundred-mile distance away from politics, because Liberian politics is politics of death; instead, he suggested that we engage in a business venture, even if it meant selling dried fish.

Bulldozer, you have left us, but your frankness and earnestness will be remembered. We will also remember you as a family man. You left behind a beautiful and loving wife, and wonderful children, and cheerful grandchildren.

REST IN PERFECT PEACE, Papa Beh. Remember us as the Almighty guards you through your journey.

G. Gebrier Roberts
For the Roberts Family

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