Tony Eghan remembered as educator, athlete and proud Ghanaian-Nova Scotian

Members of Nova Scotia's Ghanaian community are celebrating the life of a leader. 

Tony Eghan was born in Ghana and lived much of his life in Nova Scotia. He died in March.  

Long before Eghan moved to Nova Scotia, he'd made a mark in Africa. In 1978, he coached Ghana's Black Stars to win the Africa Cup of Nations. 

"He was already a celebrity in his own right before he came to Canada," said Toria Aidoo, a Ghanaian-Nova Scotian who met Eghan after he migrated to Nova Scotia in 1989. 

According to his obituary, he was born in Pedu, in the central region of Ghana, in 1944. He graduated from a local teaching school and taught for several years in Ghana. 

He was also passionate about soccer, and travelled to Germany to study for an advanced soccer coaching certificate in 1976. Later that year, he was named coach for Ghana's national team, the Black Stars, and led them to their 1978 Africa Cup of Nations win in Ghana. 

He returned to education in the 1980s and moved to the United States to earn his PhD in physical education at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La. In 1989, he moved to Nova Scotia to teach at Acadia University's school of health and physical education. 

"Tony Eghan is a father figure to most of us Ghanaians here and he's a well-respected, well-loved leader in our community and elder in our community," Aidoo said.  

After two years at Acadia, Eghan was on the move once again — this time, to teach at elementary schools in the Halifax area.

Anne Johnson-McDonald, the principal of North Preston's Nelson Whynder Elementary School, said Eghan made an impact teaching at her school in the 1990s and early 2000s. 

"He kept in touch with and supported students that he would have taught back in the '90s,