Joseph W. S. de Graft-Johnson

Joseph William Swain de Graft-Johnson was an engineer and academic who became the first Vice-President of Ghana, under President Hilla Limann from 1979 to 1981. He was born in Cape Coast on 6 October 1933 and died in London on 22 April 1999.

He went to Mfantsipim School and studied civil engineering at the University of Leeds, took a master's in highway engineering at Birmingham and a PhD in soil mechanics at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1965. He lectured at KNUST, becoming an associate professor in 1968, and directed the Building and Road Research Institute from 1969. He was a founding member of the Ghana Institution of Engineers and its president in 1977 and 1978, when professional bodies led opposition to continued military rule.

He sat in the Constituent Assembly that wrote the 1979 Constitution, joined the People's National Party and became Vice-President when it won that year. After the coup of 31 December 1981 he went into exile in London. He was married to Lily Anna Sekyi and had five children, and is buried in Cape Coast.