Every year, Zoao Makumbi Sr. told his family he planned to retire. And every year, his daughter knew that her father probably wouldn't retire.
Makumbi, 75, died April 16 at Doctors Community Hospital in Prince George’s County, after going to the hospital a few days before, his family said. A spokesman for D.C. Public Schools said he is the system’s first confirmed employee to die of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. He is survived by his wife, five daughters, four stepchildren and eight grandchildren.
Makumbi was a 25-year veteran of the school system and ended his career at Houston Elementary in Ward 7.
“He loved his job so much, I think he would have worked until he was in his eighties and nineties,” said Florie L. Matondo, his eldest daughter. “He loved studying behavior — that’s what he kept telling me. Because human beings, he said, were the most complicated things.”
Makumbi’s winding path to becoming a school psychologist spanned two continents and five decades. He was born in what is now known as Congo, the son of Angolan refugees. He was a psychology major in college and taught Angolan high school refugees in Congo. He and his uncle Sebastian Pinto were “freedom fighters” in the 1970s, pushing for Angola’s independence from Portugal.
Then Makumbi became a top Angolan education official in Congo, where many refugees lived, said Pinto.
Makumbi later became chief of staff for a General Motors factory in Congo. He helped children secure scholarships, and when he coudn’t, he used his salary to pay their tuitions himself.
In 1983, General Motors recruited Makumbi to work in a Michigan factory. He moved to the United States. After the factory closed, his daughter said, he decided to pursue his dream of becoming a psychologist. He earned his PhD at Howard University.
Pinto said he’s not surprised that his nephew returned to education.
“He loved people, and he loved to educate people,” Pinto said. “He felt people are the same everywhere.”
His colleagues remembered Makumbi as kind, well-read and opinionated. He debated everything, they said, including local education politics, international relations and what he viewed as the follies of standardized exams.
Darryl Webster, a social worker at Houston Elementary, who shared an office with Makumbi for six years, said the psychological assessments he compiled for students were longer and more thorough than any Webster had seen. Watching Makumbi break down the assessments in a way that parents could understand was, Webster said, “poetry.”
If Makumbi couldn’t get in touch with parents, he and Webster would drive to their homes. One mother said that Makumbi would help her daughter with school work, even though that wasn’t his job.
Webster said Makumbi saw himself in many of the low-
income black children he served and believed it was his mission to help them access a high-quality education.
He recalled witnessing Makumbi giving a young boy an assessment — an interaction that Webster said showed the potential that Makumbi saw in each student, no matter what any test may say.
The boy was frustrated, unable to answer any of the questions Makumbi presented him.
“C’mon child, c’mon child, you can do it,” Makumbi said as he patted the boy on the head. “I believe in you. You can do it.”
He suggested the boy should get some water. When he returned, Makumbi asked if the boy was ready.
“Well then, let’s get at it,” he said.
They completed the test. When the student left, Webster asked Makumbi how he fared.
Makumbi smiled.
“That boy’s a genius,” he said.