Early Life and Education
Lagos roots, school and university.
Funso was born in Lagos on 16 June 1968. His father, the late Dr Henry Aderounmu Aremu Doherty, a medical doctor, was also born in Lagos, in 1900, to “Oga” Josiah Henryson Doherty, popularly known as “the prince merchant of Alakoro”. His paternal grandmother, Germana, was from the Reis family. Funso's mother, Gladys Urunowonekawo Kirstein, who died in September 2024, was born in 1931 to an Itsekiri mother, Mary Kponuko Eyesan, and a German father.
Funso grew up on Wakeman Street (now Borno Way) in Yaba. His father ran a private medical practice on Aje Street, after a career as a medical officer dating back to the colonial administration, which he joined after completing medical school in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1926. His mother retired from the then National Electric Power Authority after 35 years in the civil service.
At Corona School, Victoria Island, he was appointed Head Boy, and he completed his primary education in 1979. He went on to King's College Lagos, his father's alma mater (Dr Henry Doherty finished there in 1918). At KC he was a Federal Government Academic Scholar, and he received the school's Service to College Life award: his peers elected him Form Captain for four consecutive terms.
He read Accounting at the University of Lagos, graduating with Second Class Upper Division honours in 1990. At Unilag he was a member of the ABC Club, and his peers elected him Chief of the club.
