Alex Surba Tucker was born on June 18th, 1941 in Bonthe on Sherbro Island, Sierra Leone in West Africa. The first born of his parents Solomon and Rose, he had nine siblings. Alex grew up amongst the mangrove swamps, rivers, and beaches of his native land. He shared many childhood stories with his children, nieces and nephews, where he recalled having to do chores such as fetching water and wood, but also how he and his siblings, cousins and friends would play in the forest, and stop to forage the abundant sea food in the area. They cooked oysters and lobster over an open fire, and in his later years, he proudly proclaimed to the younger generation that such luxury food in the US is what he used to eat when he was poor in Africa! During his early school years, Alex lived with his uncle, Robert Boama Kowa, while attending the Christian boarding school, Christ the King College (CKC). He was part of the second graduating class, and was a star student-athlete—running track, playing soccer and cricket, and becoming the Senior Prefect, the top rank for a student in the British education system. He proudly boasted about how a school with one microscope produced a plethora of doctors, lawyers, and prominent politicians. In recent years, Alex was honored in Washington DC as a distinguished alumni by the North American chapter of the CKC Old Boys Association. After graduating from CKC, Alex moved to Freetown while the country was gaining its independence from Britain. Under the new government of Sir Milton Margai, he received a scholarship to attend Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. With few possessions that included a country cloth blanket given to him by father, he flew across the ocean and landed in the American South in the midst of the throes of the Civil Rights movement. After Nashville, Alex lived for a few years in Washington DC, working in the Sierra Leonean Embassy. He lived with friends in a shared apartment in the Colombia Heights neighborhood. Wanting to continue his education he learned about American Universities while on night duty at the Embassy, by watching American college football games. When it was time for him to return to school, he applied to several of the places that he had remembered from television, one of was the University of Wisconsin, who ended up accepting him and giving him a scholarship to study at their Milwaukee campus. Alex then moved to Milwaukee where his older brother Peter was studying at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. While studying, he fell in with a tight knit community of Sierra Leonean students, some of whom he even knew from school in Bo. In summers he lived outside of Kingston, Jamaica teaching Krio and Mende to Peace Corps volunteers on their way to Sierra Leone. It is through the Milwaukee Sierra Leonean community that he met his first wife Elizabeth Leigh Tucker. In 1971, he graduated from UW-Milwaukee and then applied to medical school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he was accepted into the class of 1975. A few months later he gained his US Citizenship. Alex dove head first into medical school while protests against the Vietnam War reached their peak at the University of Wisconsin. In 1972 and 1973 his first two children, Bawill and Surba were born. He enjoyed his years at the University of Wisconsin immensely, often going to football games to party with other students (and they rarely won a game at that time), and eating pizza and drinking beer at the Memorial Union. After graduating from medical school, Alex did one year of residency at Rutger's University in surgery, but changed his specialty to family practice and returned to Milwaukee. When he finished his residency, he bought a house in Bayside, Wisconsin and opened a private practice on Capital Drive in Shorewood. He married his partner for the next 40 years, Linda Kettner Tucker, and then his third son, Boima, arrived in 1981. Alex served as a family practitioner in Milwaukee for 45 years. The changing environment for medicine forced him to close his private practice and join the HMO Family Health Plan located on Silver Spring Drive in northwest Milwaukee. That was followed by a 30 year employment with St. Mary's/Columbia, and most recently Outreach Community Health Center, where he would retire after 5 years of service. While living in Bayside, he hosted New Year parties for the Milwaukee African community, many friends and family coming to dance, while Alex proudly spun records into the early morning on the first of each year. In his spare time he loved to fish, and he felt at home amongst the crew of working class fishermen at McKinley Marina. He also was finally able to make regular trips back home to Sierra Leone, and also took his family on many trips across the US, determined to see every part of the country by road. In 1988 Alex and Linda welcomed Jeneba Margaret Tucker into their family. The youngest child rounded out the family with a girl on the roster. Around this time, many relatives from Sierra Leone started to come to the Bayside house, first as visitors and then increasingly as residents seeking refuge from the Sierra Leonean civil war. Alex became a touchstone for the Milwaukee Sierra Leone community, and the Bayside house became a launching point into the USA for siblings Rosella, Bridget and Joly and a bedrock for nieces and nephews Baigeh Tucker, Boi-Yeanoh Adams and Henrietta "Chuchu" Musa. With an impressive green thumb he turned his yard into a beautiful Tulip garden with an impeccably manicured front lawn, and a vegetable and fruit garden in the backyard for good measure. Around the age of 50, Alex became a workout enthusiast, starting with running and lifting weights in the basement of his house, to becoming a well-known face at Milwaukee's Jewish Community Center. He became an enthusiastic Badger Football supporter, and was rewarded for his dedication by the Barry Alvarez era. His enthusiasm for the team was only boosted after his nephew Baigeh won a full scholarship to play football for the University Wisconsin. He was a long time season ticket holder, and was able to attend the Rose Bowl several times to cheer them on. Everywhere he went you knew was a proud Badger from the many stickers on his car or by the Badger gear he wore. After the younger generation started to leave Milwaukee for points across the globe—from Minnesota to Michigan, Madison to Madrid, Seattle to South Korea, and the Bay Area to Brazil—Alex set out to fill a life long dream of building his own house. He found a plot of land in western Mequon and built a beautiful two story house overlooking a nature reserve. He moved in with Linda and Jeneba and started thinking about his retirement years. In this new house he spent many hours building a large garden, where Day Lilies and Columbine grew, and raspberries and potato leaf plants took root. For Alex, "retirement" meant returning to Capitol Drive to work three days a week at the Outreach Healthcare Clinic. He volunteered as a board member for SaintA, a non-profit organization in Milwaukee, and the University of Wisconsin Medical School. He was a proud member of the UW Medical School Alumni Association, and helped to organize reunions for his graduating class of 1975. While on the board at the Medical School, he kept an eye out for promising students of color, mentoring them through their studies at one of the nation's top medical schools. He also started volunteering at SaintA, mentoring the majority African American children in their elementary school program. In these later years he exchanged boating and fishing for bike riding. Every weekend he went on long rides throughout the bike trails of Milwaukee. He was proud that on is 70th birthday he was able to ride 70 miles. He continued to love traveling, especially exploring the US's National Park system. In 2017, he was able to fulfill a life-long dream of seeing the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro with close friends Dr. Tom and Lorraine Stevens who live in Grand Blanc Michigan. He was a wonderful Grandpa, and very much loved his three grandchildren, Mya Rose, Jade Geon, and Jair John Baake who were born in Milwaukee and Rio de Janeiro respectively. The Tucker family is forever grateful for the wonderful nurses and doctors at Froedert's Center for Advanced Care where he fought a four month battle. He passed away on Saturday, March 21st, 2020 at 1:20 pm at the age of 78. If you would like to contribute a gift in his honor, the family requests that you make a donation to the Dr. Alex Tucker Memorial Fund, that will go towards scholarships for students of color and other causes that Alex so cared about. To make a donation contact Educator's Credit Union-Wisconsin and make a payment to The Dr. Alex Tucker Memorial Fund, or via Venmo (@alextuckerfund). PRASSER-KLECZKA Bay View Chapel 414-483-2322