How to Write a Tribute to a Colleague or Mentor Who Has Passed

When a colleague or mentor dies, the request often comes quickly: "Can you write a tribute for the burial programme?" or "We need someone to speak at the service of songs on behalf of the office." Suddenly you are faced with the task of distilling years of professional and personal connection into a few paragraphs or a short speech. If you are wondering how to write a tribute to a colleague who passed away or a tribute to a late mentor, this guide will help you find the right tone, structure, and words.

A workplace tribute is different from a family tribute. You are speaking from a specific vantage point: you saw the person in meetings, on projects, during office celebrations and crises. Your tribute should honour what you witnessed from that vantage point, not try to be something it is not.

Quick Summary

• A workplace tribute should be professional but warm, specific but concise.

• Focus on the person's character and impact, not just their job title.

• Use one or two specific stories or memories to bring the tribute to life.

• Aim for 300 to 800 words (2 to 4 minutes if spoken).

• Acknowledge the family's loss and the gap the person leaves in the workplace.

What Makes a Good Workplace Tribute?

The best workplace tributes share three qualities:

Specificity. Generic praise ("He was a hardworking colleague") is forgettable. Specific detail ("He was the person who stayed until midnight during the year-end audit, not because he was asked, but because he saw that the team was struggling") is memorable.

Warmth without overreach. You are a colleague, not a family member. Your tribute should be warm and genuine, but it should not pretend to a depth of relationship that did not exist. If you were close, let that show. If you were friendly but not intimate, that is fine too. Honesty in the level of connection is more respectful than exaggeration.

The person, not just the role. Titles and achievements matter, but the things people remember most about a colleague are the human moments. How they greeted people in the morning. What they brought to office potlucks. How they mentored junior staff. The joke they always told.

Step 1: Gather Your Memories

Before you write, take ten minutes to remember. Ask yourself:

• What was the first thing you noticed about this person when you started working together?

• What was their working style? Were they the early bird, the late-night worker, the meeting dominator, the quiet thinker?

• How did they treat junior colleagues, support staff, and new hires?

• Was there a specific project, crisis, or moment when you saw who they truly were?

• What did they teach you, directly or by example?

• What was their trademark? A saying, a habit, a way of being?

If you are writing on behalf of a team, ask others for their memories. A collective tribute often carries more weight than a solo effort.

Step 2: Structure the Tribute

Here is a straightforward structure:

1. Opening: Who the person was and your connection to them.

2. Character and impact: What defined them as a colleague or mentor.

3. A specific story or memory: One or two vivid moments.

4. What they taught you or left behind.

5. Closing: Acknowledging the loss and addressing the family.

Example 1: Tribute to a Colleague

Tribute to Mr. Adewale Johnson, by the Strategy Team, First Atlantic Bank

Wale joined First Atlantic Bank in 2015 as a Senior Analyst in the Strategy Division. Within a year, everyone on the floor knew his name, not because he sought attention, but because he was the person you went to when you were stuck. He had a gift for taking complicated problems and making them simple, for looking at a spreadsheet that had defeated three people and finding the error in minutes.

But what I remember most about Wale is not his analytical skill. It is the way he treated interns and new hires. Every intern who joined our team received the same treatment from Wale: a firm handshake, a tour of the office, an invitation to lunch on their first day, and the reassurance that "there are no stupid questions, only stupid silence." He meant it. He had more patience with young people than anyone I have worked with.

I remember one evening in December 2021 when we were working late to finalise the board presentation. The rest of us were frustrated and snapping at each other. Wale ordered suya for the whole team, put on music from his phone, and said, "We will finish this, but we will not kill ourselves doing it." We finished at 11 p.m. with full stomachs and, somehow, good moods. That was Wale. He made hard things bearable.

To his wife and children: the man you loved at home was the same man we admired at work. He was kind, brilliant, and deeply good. We are grateful for the years we shared with him, and we will carry his example forward.

Rest well, Wale. The office will not be the same without you.

Example 2: Tribute to a Mentor

Tribute to Professor Adaeze Okwu, by Dr. Ngozi Ibe

Professor Okwu was my PhD supervisor, but calling her a supervisor does not begin to capture what she was. She was the person who saw something in me that I had not yet seen in myself.

I arrived at the University of Ibadan in 2012, uncertain and underprepared. Professor Okwu did not sugarcoat that. In our first meeting, she told me that my research proposal was "ambitious but messy" and that I had "six months to make it brilliant or find another topic." I was terrified. But over those six months, she met with me every week, challenged every assumption, tore apart every draft, and slowly, painstakingly, taught me how to think.

She was not an easy supervisor. She demanded precision, clarity, and honesty. She had no patience for sloppy reasoning or borrowed conclusions. But she was always fair, always available, and always genuinely invested in your success. When I finally defended my dissertation in 2016, she was in the front row, and after the committee congratulated me, she simply said, "You did the work. I just pointed you in the right direction."

That was her. She gave credit generously and held standards fiercely.

Professor Okwu shaped an entire generation of scholars. I am one of dozens who owe their careers to her guidance. To her family: thank you for sharing her with us. Her legacy lives in every student she mentored, every paper she guided, and every career she launched.

May she rest in eternal peace.

Tips for Delivering the Tribute

If you are delivering the tribute aloud at a service of songs or funeral service:

• Practise reading it aloud at least twice. Timing yourself will help you stay within the allocated slot (usually 3 to 5 minutes).

• Speak slowly. Grief and nerves make people rush. Slow down.

• It is fine to cry. If you get emotional, pause, take a breath, and continue. Nobody will judge you.

• Look at the family. At some point during your tribute, make eye contact with the family. They need to see that you genuinely cared about their person.

• Bring a printed copy. Do not rely on your phone. Screens go dark, batteries die, and fingers shake.

When You Are Writing on Behalf of a Group

If you are writing a tribute on behalf of a department, company, or professional association, include the group name in the heading and write in the first-person plural ("we"). Try to include specific anecdotes from different members of the group so the tribute feels collective rather than individual.

For guidance on the formal obituary that the family produces, see How to Write an Obituary in Nigeria. For personal messages to send alongside your tribute, see 50 Condolence Messages for a Nigerian Friend or Colleague.

Beyond the Funeral

If you want to honour your colleague or mentor with something lasting, consider creating a memorial on CelebrateThem. You can set up a tribute page, upload photos from office events and celebrations, share the tribute, and send the link to the family. It is a meaningful gesture that goes beyond the printed programme.

Your colleague or mentor made a mark on your professional life. Writing a tribute is your chance to say so publicly, with honesty, with specificity, and with the kind of respect that a person who showed up and did the work every day truly deserves.