From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 1, March 2003.

One of Nuku‘alofa’s leading businessman, Robert Albin Johansson (75) died at the Greenlane Hospital, Auckland, on 20 February, after undergoing heart surgery.

Albin was born at Kolonga, Tongatapu, on 24 November 1928, the sixth of the seven children of a Swedish father, Anders Albin Johansson, and a Tongan mother, ‘Ilaisaane Manu Lulu.

Albin attended Nafula College from 1942 to 1946, then Tonga College from 1947 to 1948, and graduated as Dux. He went on to become a chartered accountant.

He established his own firm, Albin Johansson Chartered Accountant, in Nuku‘alofa in 1983, and for over 20 years helped with the development of many new businesses, and the expansion of existing ones in Tonga.

In 1989 he was appointed by Cabinet as one of the founding directors of the National Reserve Bank of Tonga, a post he held until his death.

In 1981 Albin was commissioned as the Swedish Honorary Consul for Tonga.

Albin’s service for the Kingdom of Sweden was recognised when he was awarded it’s most prestigious medal of honour, the Polar Star at a ceremony on 1 November 2001 in Nuku‘alofa.

Albin is survived by his wife Loretta, their four children Paul, ‘Aloma, Kolini and Ramona, and a number of grandchildren.