You have love in your heart. You make our pastors’ lives easier wherever we attend church at. You love me and our children.

--Mabel (My Wife since 1976.)

You are the eternal optimist – no matter what the situation is. Logic and reasoning – you have the ability to help people to think through their emotions clearly.

--Pearl (Eldest daughter)

Planning-Savvy, Organized, Gets people excited easily, Creative, Optimistic, and Compassionate.

--Ruby (Youngest daughter)

Good communicator, Dreamer, Facilitator, Loyal, Persistent, Hard-working, Disciplined.

--Rick (Close Christian brother.)

People-person, Hospitality, Supports others, Motivates other people, Visionary – Ideas person.

--Suzanne (Rick’s Wife. Rick and Suzanne were the first family who opened up their home to us when we moved to Tallahassee in 2003.)

Resolute and caring.

--Ruby (High school classmates. Relationship is currently over 40 years strong.)

Witty, Patient, Calm, Great Leadership Qualities, Friendly, Good Listener, Team Player, and so on.

--Emmanuel, Professor at Howard University (High school classmates. Relationship is currently over 40 years strong.)

Successful albeit considerate. Meek but hard. Achievement-oriented. Very assertive. Smart. Hard working. Longsuffering (patient with others), if you will permit me to quote from the Bible. Joe has not forgotten his roots! And is a very dependable friend. Yes, we love you Joe!

--Jackson, Texas (High school classmates. Relationship is currently over 40 years strong.)

Joe is a gifted communicator: You have a great ability to immediately befriend people, gain their trust, encourage them to help on your projects, and then promote their success afterwards. This allows you to walk into any situation and quickly make a positive impact towards your goals. Joe is a cheerleader: You promote the success of your teammates, your organization, and your company. This makes the entire team feel good, positive, and energetic when working with you. Joe shares: You have always been open about sharing personal stories, personal information, and personal tidbits. This allows for a close bond and a tight working relationship. This also helps foster additional communication (team members may share personal information back) and commitment (they say, “we can’t let Joe down now that we are so close of friends”). Joe’s values: You have always had a clear set of values. You believe in those, you live by those, you promote those, and you grow those. Examples: Christianity, knowledge management, project methodology, personal growth, higher education, over-communication, and friendship. Let me know if you need more. I could write a book on you!

--Rick (Immediate supervisor for 8 years.)

Fortunately, for you, you are quite talented and gifted, compared to the rest of us (including me). I believe your greatest gift is your knowledge and the ability to share and teach others. When you speak, people listen. I think teaching is a "gift". The mere fact that a person has a tremendous amount of knowledge, and intelligence, does not mean he/she has the capability to share information with others, but Joe, you do have that special gift. Even for the most difficult and boring subjects, you have managed to get others to participate and eventually enjoy and appreciate the discussed subjects. Your personality and your interaction with people can help them break their own barriers and reach for their own light. You represent how a teacher should be - dedication-devotion-caring-and loving. Thank you for letting me be a part of this assignment.

--Diem, Project Manager, Hewlett Packard (Colleagues for 8 years.)

Open to new ideas/processes/approaches. Willing to provide honest feedback/input. Enthusiastic regarding task/s at hand Organized.

--Marlyn, Hewlett-Packard, Software Engineer (Long-term colleagues)

Uncle Joe, You are always positive and always see the positive side of things. Your happiness and well-being affect those around you, lifting their spirits as well. I wish you well with your new venture.

--Dave, Project Manager, Vodacom, South Africa

I am sure you know I do love you. What I see as some of your gifts are: You are an encourager who brings out the best in others. You are a good administrator and planner. You are an excellent helper (I like to explain that further: that so far as it is in your power you will help even when it is inconvenient for you. You may have forgotten this but without your help I would not have completed my masters degree thesis in time for graduation at TSU in 1989: thank you so much.

--Joseph. (A family friend for over 25 years.)

I have to say that your greatest gift is your amazingly positive attitude. We have worked together on some very challenging projects over the years and I have to say that you never seem to let things get you down. You maintain a positive attitude throughout the process. You are a very good project manager. You keep things on track but more than anything else, I have to say your positive attitude is your greatest gift.

--Patrick, Hewlett-Packard

Joe, you are a man of many gifts to be sure! Kind-hearted person, Great speaker (one of the best I have ever worked with), Able to diffuse a potentially hostile situation. (I saw you take control in Istanbul, Turkey, during our initial meeting with our customer)

--Daniel, Hewlett-Packard (Engineer and technical consultant on several international telecom projects managed by Dr. Amanfu.)

Your most important (personal) gifts are the big smile, good sense of humour, inspire people to do the necessary work

--Jesper, Hewlett-Packard Denmark

Trust - I can trust you to get things done in the face of adversity. Intelligence. Committed to excellence.

--Joanne, Hewlett-Packard, Senior Solution Architect

I would genuinely say from the bottom of my heart that you've always shown care, love, sympathy, respect, honesty, straightforwardness and the list goes on and on. But most of all, you've always shown devotion, fear and love for God. Mmm, I must say you're the most extraordinary man I have ever seen on mother earth. Everyone back in South Africa genuinely misses you because of your good-hearted and free-spirited nature. I too, love you to bits! You have touched my heart in a special Godly way. May you live to see all your grand and great grandchildren in Jesus name.

--Zanele, Senior Project Administrator, Vodacom – South Africa

Extremely passionate regarding endeavors and responsibilities. A team player. Joe always seems to put others above himself and always acts in the best interest of the team. Friendly and outgoing. Joe can find his sense of humor even during trying times. Meticulous. Joe is always on top of things. Intelligent with good common sense.

--Brad, Hewlett-Packard Senior Level Software Engineer (Brad also traveled to South Africa in 2008 and assisted us with some engineering work when I was the project manager in South Africa.)

Smart, Organized, Thoughtful, Intuitive

--Kathy, Hewlett-Packard Co-lead on Action Team (Established by the African American Leadership Forum – AALF – of HP, our Action Team was charged to come up with recommendations for developing Leaders versus Managers. The AALF was initiated by HP in June 2008 in San Diego where about 50 Top Performers were selected from all over the country and brought together to participate in the first HP African American Leadership Summit.)

Dr. Joe, When I think of you and the gift that GOD has bestowed on to you, what comes to my spirit is that GOD has BLESSED you with the spirit of EXHORTATION (encouragement) and a gift of FINANCIAL BLESSING to others. Sometimes, we would like to run away from our GIFTS but with you; YOU always run towards your GIFTS.  Always continue to allow GOD to use you and mold you to be the person He wants you to be.

--Jacqueline, Chief Advisor – Strategic Planning & Controls, South Africa

Communication, communication and communication! Open-minded.

--Alain, Manager at Hewlett-Packard, Grenoble, France

You lead by example and appreciate your direct report's hard work. You treat people fairly and establish long lasting relations by relating with others. You are open and inspire people to work hard, to be creative and responsible.

--Nagesh, Hewlett-Packard, Software Engineer

Dr. Joe. You should be doing this for yourself…not HP….Lifestyle Coach, that is!!! Your Gifts: Gift of the GAB. You are quite a charmer. You are sincerely interested in the well-being of your fellow man. You are a positive motivator to the rest of your colleagues. As I was saying to the guys here not so long ago, you are wasting your talents at HP. With your abilities, you should be heading up your own business.

--Clive (Coworker on engineer team in South Africa.)

You have so many gifts, it will probably take me all day to list them. A person with Integrity, Kindness - Always caring about other people, Open-minded, Visionary, Dedicated in everything you take on.

--Niels, Manager at Vodacom, South Africa (“Niels and I became like true brothers. In case, you do not know the history of South Africa, I would only need to mention that Niels is a white Afrikaan.” ~Dr. Amanfu)

Consistently positive attitude, Ability to motivate people, Empathy.  For example, if you ask a person to do something, you come across as respectful of the person’s time, as opposed to thoughtlessly dumping tasks on people.

--Karen, Hewlett-Packard, Senior Level Software Engineer

You're a gifted person, one key strength is your ability for people to like you. I believe this is because of your dedicated style of work. You are complete and your follow-up is another strength. These two gifts are a token of a person who knows how to manage any task assigned.

--Loretta, Hewlett-Packard (Admin. Assistant to Dr. Amanfu for 9 years.)

You're a gifted person, one key strength is your ability for people to like you. I believe this is because of your dedicated style of work. You are complete and your follow-up is another strength. These two gifts are a token of a person who knows how to manage any task assigned.

--Len, Manager at HP Austria (Partnered for several international projects.)

Your gifts: Understands a situation well, Good team player, Kind, Accommodating, Family person.

--Rony, Hewlett-Packard Australia (Partnered for several international projects.)

Excellent - can't wait to hear more about you and your mentor.

--Dr. John C. Maxwell

The conference was a resounding success in large part due to the high caliber of presentations that were made to the eager participants. We cannot say enough about the strongly positive responses we received from conference participants on the presentation feedback forms. They were overwhelmingly positive on both the content and delivery of the conference topics. Special thanks to our Keynote Speaker, Dr Joseph Amanfu, whose enthusiastic presentation was particularly well received.

--Alan Barnes, PMP, VP Education, PMI-NEFL, Jacksonville FL

Joe's presentation was JOE. It was not the slides. To reference Joe's slides out of context, without the total Joe experience does not have much value.  Having said that, of course I want a copy - but that is only for my own reference to remind me of Joe's great presentation. Just call me middle of the fence on the issue.

--Past President of The PMI Tallahassee Chapter

Thanks Joe! I thought you might like to know, after glancing through many of the survey forms filled out by the attendees, your session, and you in particular, received many wonderful compliments on the presentation and content of your discussion. In fact, every survey that was filled out from your session requested that you appear on the program again!!

--Aimee Rupe, Event Manager, Florida Digital Government Summit (A Government Technology Executive Leadership Forum)