Baltimore – Hundreds of Liberians and sympathizers from across the U.S and Liberia gathered over the weekend In Baltimore, Maryland to pay final home to the veteran Liberian educator and diplomat, Dr. James Teah Tarpeh, Sr.
The homegoing event held over the weekend, brought together an array of sympathizers including former statesmen, academic leaders, and Diaspora leaders who joined the family to pay homage to the renown Liberian statesman.
The late Ambassador Tarpeh who served as Liberia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Nigeria, Togo and Benin passed away on March 15 in Atlanta Georgia after a brief illness.
Delivering the eulogy, Rev. Dr. Emmett L. Dunn, Executive Secretary of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention extolled the significant contribution made by the fallen Liberian educator whom he described as “one of the finest intellectuals that Liberia has ever produced who spent his life in the quest to improve the minds of the younger generation”. He recalled Dr. Tarpeh’s unwavering courage and interest in the well-being of his students which was shown during his service as Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Liberia (UL) when he stood up to the military regime of the then Head of State Samuel K. Doe and the Peoples Redemption Council (PRC) in a bloody raid in 1883 on students at the national university.
Dr. James Teah Tarpeh was born on March 22,1940, in Monrovia, Liberia to Richard Tiklo Tarpeh and Martha Gofa Blamoh. He was raised in Robertsport, Cape Mount, where he began a lifelong journey of leadership, service, and impact. A gifted soccer player, Dr. Tarpeh would go on to star for the legendary Liberian Football Club, Invincible Eleven (I.E.). He obtained his foundational education at the St. John’s Boarding School under the guardianship of the late Father Edgar Bolling Robertson and Sister Marilyn Robertson, who were instrumental in shaping his early foundation.
Dr. Tarpeh earned his undergraduate degree from Cuttington College in Suakoko, Bong County, Liberia, where he met his first wife, Etmonia David, forging a union which produced four children. He later matriculated to Kent State University, and later the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned his doctorate in Political Science as a Fulbright Scholar.
Returning to Liberia in 1978, Dr. Tarpeh began a distinguished career in education and public service. As Vice President of Academic Affairs at UL, and the nation’s leading Political Science professor, he mentored countless students with a keen devotion to academic excellence. His students described him as a master of the written word who was known to use red ink to correct the slightest error in an essay, He took many young men and women under his wing as a mentor. It was during this period that he was given another nickname, “Doc”.
His desire to keep Liberia on the global stage led to an assignment during the Liberian transitional period as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. While on assignment in Abuja, Ambassador Tarpeh married his second wife, the late Lango Clarke Tarpeh. After his tenure as a diplomat, Dr. Tarpeh returned to the U.S where he served on the faculty at prestigious institutions including Johns Hopkins University, American University, and Strayer University. As a consultant at the renowned Brookings Institution he famously edited and published a foundational piece of Liberian history entitled, “Liberia Under Military Rule-Decrees of the People’s Redemption Council and Interim National Assembly Governments: 1980-1986″. His passion for leadership and mentorship led to the founding of the Tarpeh Foundation and his role as Executive Director of The Africa Agenda for Development and Reform. While in the Washington D.C. area, Dr. Tarpeh later took the hand of Mary Kofa Toe-Tarpeh in marriage.
In 2004, he led and organized the first All Liberian Diaspora Conference in Washington DC, bringing together Liberian leaders, intellectuals and scholars from around the globe to lay a blueprint for the transformation of Liberia as the country prepared for transition to the postwar era.
Friends and family described him as one who never wavered from his belief in a better and more unified Liberia. On March 15,2025 following a brief illness, Dr. Tarpeh transitioned peacefully at the home of his daughter near Atlanta, Georgia, while surrounded by his loving children.
He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Mary Kofa Toe-Tarpeh, his daughters, Geraldine Tarpeh-Jones (Michael), Wilhelmina Jenkins (Barry), Elvira Tarpeh, and Munah Tarpeh, and his son, James Teah Tarpeh II (Jessica). His legacy lives on through his grandchildren, Kimberlee Jenkins, Michael Jones II, Barry Jenkins II, Gerald Teah Jones, Johrdyn Tarpeh, Jestina Jones, Sidrah Tarpeh, Layla Lemons, James Davis Teah Tarpeh and bonus granddaughter, Emma Nagbe.
Also, mourning the loss of our family patriarch are his brother Thomas Blamo Barcon, sisters Teresa Zinnah, and Gladys Tarpeh Brown, several nieces, nephews, and a host of cousins, and extended family who loved him dearly.
