Professor Lalage Bown, born on 1 Apr 1927, attended Somerville College, Oxford University (MA and Postgraduate Internship in Adult Education). She worked as Resident Tutor, University College of the Gold Coast, for Trans-Volta and Togoland, from 1949 to 1955, and at the Department of Extra-Mural Studies, Makerere College, East Uganda, from 1955 to 1959. While in the Gold Coast (Ghana), she was involved in the initiation of the Awudome Residential Adult College. She was Assistant Director, then Deputy Director of Extra-Mural Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, from 1960 to 1966, and Director of Extra-Mural Studies and Professor (ad personam), University of Zambia, from 1966 to 1970. From 1971 to 1976, she was Professor of Adult Education and Chief Extension Coordinator, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. She held the posts of Professor and Head of the Department of Adult Education, from 1977 to 1979, and Dean of Education, 1979-1980, University of Lagos, Nigeria. She was awarded the William Pearson Tolley Medal by Syracuse University, New York, USA, in 1975, and the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 1977.