African Studies Professor Later Worked at Red Cross

Barbara Nnoka, 87, a former African studies professor who later became a social worker for the Arlington County chapter of the American Red Cross, died Sept. 4 of a heart attack at her home in Arlington.

Ms. Nnoka, whose idealism was fueled by her Quaker beliefs, decided to work in Africa a few years after graduating from college and in 1954 became a teacher in Nigeria. After the nation gained its independence in 1960, she served as an aide to Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria's first president.

In 1966, with Nigeria heading toward civil war, Ms. Nnoka and her twin children returned to the United States, where she taught African studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz. She eventually became department chairman.

In 1971, she moved to West Chester, Pa., where she became director of a Quaker orphanage for girls.

Ms. Nnoka moved to Arlington in 1974 and became involved in the effort to save Colonial Village, a collection of 1,100 garden apartments built in 1935 and slated for demolition by a subsidiary of Mobil Corp., which owned the property. The compromise struck between Mobil and the tenants allowed for part of Colonial Village to be declared a historic landmark. Some apartments were torn down to make way for office buildings, and others were converted to co-ops and condominiums.

Barbara Grant was born in Hartford, Conn., and graduated from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, in 1943. She received a master's degree in "relief and reconstruction" from Haverford College in Haverford, Pa., in 1945. The degree was designed to train social workers to help in the postwar reconstruction of Europe. She also received a master's degree in legal studies from the Washington branch of Antioch College in 1984.

At the Red Cross, she was in charge of programs for military families and was director of disaster response. "Whenever there was a fire or a plane crash or something, she'd put on her red Red Cross jacket and disappear into the night," her daughter recalled. Ms. Nnoka retired in 1987.

Introduced to Quakerism at Haverford, Ms. Nnoka was a member of the Friends Meeting of Washington, serving on several committees and on the board of trustees. She wrote the congregation's history and chaired a scholarship committee, which helped dozens of D.C. public school graduates attend college.

Her marriage to Alphonsus Ethelbert Ifeanyi Nnoka ended in divorce.

Survivors include two children, Catherine Nnoka of Arlington and Chicago and Barrett Nnoka of Mechanicsville, Va.; and two grandchildren.

-- Joe Holley