We are saddened to announce the transition (or passing) of Bobby Lester, also known as Brother Amin, father, grandfather, outspoken activist, educator, social worker, athlete and trailblazer. He was 78 years old.
He was born in Batesville, Miss., to Robert and Alta Mae Lester on Nov. 21, 1944. He was one of five siblings. In Batesville, he lived on a farm that was owned with his maternal grandparents. During the summers, chickens were raised and a big garden of vegetables was harvested. During the winter months, he and his family would pick cotton. This is where he began his love for farming, landscaping and horticultural science.
He was taught to read by his grandmother at the age of three. Bobby was always reading books while the others played outside. He would speak affectionately about his grandmother for the rest of his life.
In 1960, Bobby went to live in Detroit, Mich., with his mother and family. He would attend high school with the members of Motown City such as Aretha Franklin and other Motown artists. Upon graduating from Chadsey High School in 1963 with honors, he received a full basketball scholarship to attend Jackson State University in Mississippi and then Lawrence Tech in Michigan.
It was at Lawrence Tech, Bobby was recruited to play for the Virgin Islands Olympic team, along with Hannibal Ware. They subsequently enrolled in the College of the Virgin Islands (CVI), St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Bobby was a talented and extremely skilled basketball player who, along with his other teammates from the states, introduced basketball on another level. He showed skills like spinning the basketball on his fingers, dunking the ball and notable jump shots.
In 1966, at CVI he met Miss Winona Seales (Miss CVI 1969), a Crucian, and they would marry in Detroit, Mich., in 1969. From this union they would have two children: Rashida Ki-amu Lester and Rasul Amin Abdul-Rahman Lester. In the early 70s, he became an educator and taught physical education at the Charles H. Emanuel School and at Arthur A. Richards Jr. High School.
After the dissolution of his marriage to Winona, he acquired four acres of land in Estate LaGrange for agricultural purposes such as farming and beekeeping. It was there he would move his bee business from Estate Whim and utilize the beekeeping training that he had obtained from Allen Burt Sr., the original Honeyman, and he opened Rasul’s Apiaries.
Bobby adopted the name Brother Amin Abdul-Rahman as part of this journey to become a devout Muslim. His Islamic family would include wife, Jamilah Harvey, and daughters: Jamilah Harvey, Tasliym and Bilqis Abdul-Rahman Lester. In 1989, after the destruction of Hurricane Hugo, and being left homeless, Brother Amin and his youngest daughters and brother, Earl Lance Lester, moved to Omaha, Neb.
It was there Brother Amin would acquire his degree in social work from Bellevue, Neb., and began working as a social worker at a local Head Start program. In 2001, at the insistence of his son, Rasul, Brother Amin returned to the Virgin Islands and began teaching Agriculture Science and then PE at the John H. Woodson School.
Due to a medical condition, he had developed as an athlete and other medical ailments that could not be addressed on St. Croix, Amin relocated to be with his younger daughters. At the end of his journey to seek medical attention, he would ultimately become a resident of the state of Georgia. It was here he suddenly, but peacefully, transitioned to the afterlife on 02/01/2023. “Indeed we belong to Allah (God) and to Him we all return.”- Quran 2:156
Brother Amin is survived by his children: Rashida Ki-amu Lester, Rasul Amin, Tasliym Taherra and Bilqis Ruqqayah Abdul-Rahman Lester and Jamilah R. Harvey; sisters: Mary Ruth Rudd (Mich.), Eva Rose and Cassandra Lester; adopted sons: Rudy Joshua and Warren Chiverton; grandsons: Jahleel Prentice, Tariq Lester William and Nicholas Akossou-Har, Amir and Naim Abdul Rahman Bishop; granddaughters: Shonette Thompson, Jahlilah Prentice, Tejah Browne, Aniis and Mayah Lester; and great-grandchildren: Greyson and Malayah Thompson, and Ki-Amu Ameenah Roberts.
special nephew, Tyrone “Terry” Seales (Ga.); nephews: Michael and Bobby Rudd (Mich.), Terry and Delim Rose (Mich.), Steve Lester (Mich.), Taurus McKissack (Mich.); adopted nephews: Anselmo “Sonny” Miranda (Ga.), Rupert O. Ross, DeRay and Toliano Seales; nieces: Stileda Rose (Ariz.), Lisa Rudd (Mich.), Nichole Lester (Utah) and Chahara McKissack (Calif.); adopted nieces: Michelle and Desiree Miranda, Grace McNamara and Cheru Ross; and special cousins Ava Lynette Wilson and Chandra Kay Murray.
Other survivors include special friends and loved ones: Winona Seales-Lester, Pearl Seales-Miranda, Cleveland and Mary Walter, Brother Abu Bakr Rehnholdt “Rookie” Jackson, Cuthbert George, Winston Phillips, Theobald “Sonny” Seales, Tyrone Seales Sr., Rupert and Cheryl Ross, and Lordsel Casey, the Seales family, the Ross family, the Miranda family, the Eagle Creek Apartment Complex (Buford, Ga.) and too numerous to mention his beloved students and colleagues of Charles H. Emanuel, John H. Woodson and Arthur A. Richards Junior High School, the Estate La Grange family, the CVI family, Shirma Henry and her Georgia family.
