Obituary of Azu A. Ajudua, M.D.

Azu Augustine Ajudua, M.D., of Mill Neck, New York died surrounded by family in Glen Cove Hospital on October 9, 2025. He was 81 years old.

Born as one of 11 children to the late Pa John Okolie Ajudua and the late Elizabeth Okwuazo Ajudua in Lagos, Nigeria, where he graduated at the top of his Catholic school class, Azu paved his own path toward the American Dream. 

After attending medical school at the University of Zagreb in Croatia (formerly Yugoslavia), he interned at Chester County Hospital in Pennsylvania followed by Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, then completed his residency at Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center. There, Azu met his wife of 48 years, Stephanie (Hladkyj) Ajudua, a nurse. He went on to start a private internal medicine practice in New York City, which he ran for decades.

Azu and Stephanie built a home for their growing family in Upper Brookville, and later moved to Mill Neck. He is survived by Stephanie, their six children—Stephanie, Natalie, Helena (Joseph) Pederson, Christine, A.J., Michael (Morissa)—and seven grandchildren (Isadora, Aurelia, Jalen, Ashton, Hazel, Viggo, Olive), as well as five siblings and many family members between Nigeria and the U.S., of which he became a naturalized citizen in 1990. 

Azu loved his family as well as jazz music, plant life, warm scarves and sweater vests, crunchy lemon cookies, honey-roasted cashews, butter-pecan ice cream, and soccer. His favorite song was Lucky Man by Emerson, Lake & Palmer. He will be remembered for his drive to do well—he worked very hard to provide for his family and to help others—for his dignified manner, and for what a lucky man he was.

A Funeral Mass was held at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, November 29, 2025 at St. Dominic RC Chapel, Oyster Bay, NY, with a burial of his ashes to follow in 2026.  In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory can be made to Salesian Missions (2 Lefevre Lane, New Rochelle, NY, 10801-5710; salesianmissions.org).