My dad’s lifelong journey began in the Ifededuna Tribe of Nigeria. Raised in a two-parent home as the 5th of 12 siblings, Innocent Modilim was supported by his dad’s work as a police officer and his moms work as a small business owner. As a child, he went to 4 different elementary schools due to his father needing to supervise several construction projects. Innocent was unable to attend the first part of secondary school due to two and a half years of civil war that wracked the country of Nigeria. After the war, Innocent finished his education and attended a seminary for 6 years before deciding priesthood wasn’t for him. Innocent worked for 7 years after leaving the seminary. He was an accounting clerk, an employee at a radio station, and a budget manager at a car repair shop. Wanting to go to college in America for a better education, he saved money for a flight to New Jersey, where he enrolled at Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University). Seeing the U.S. for the first time was disappointing for him. He expected everything to be a lot cleaner and perfect; however, he stayed and graduated in 1989. He had a Bachelors, with a minor in Computer Science and a major in Math. After college, his first job was working in the computer department of a shipping company. Afterwards, he moved the North Carolina in 1992, where he lives now.
In NC, he worked at Nortel for 7 years before he was laid off due to company reconstruction. He then moved to SAS to work as a network specialist. It was 1998 when Innocent met his wife and my mother. They had 3 kids including me, and my dad worked 15 years at SAS before finally retiring.
