Beattie Casely-Hayford

The traditional guitarist Koo Nimo had a lasting relationship with Casely-Hayford and shared many recording hours in later years. Casely-Hayford gave several lectures on Ghana's highlife music; collaborated with the University of Ghana Music Professor John Collins; and served as a founding patron of Bokoor African Popular Music Archives Foundation, an NGO that Prof. John Collins established in 1990 soon after Casely-Hayford's death in 1989.

Beattie Casely-Hayford (June 1922 – 6 August 1989) was a Ghanaian engineer. He was the first director of the Ghana Arts Council, a co-founder of the Ghana National Dance Ensemble, and a director of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).

Casely-Hayford believed that the solution to Ghana's persistent energy problems lay in alternative energy. The last project he undertook before he died in 1989 was the installation of alternative energy windmills at Weija, in the western part of the Greater Accra Region.

Beattie Casely-Hayford died in his sleep early on Sunday morning, 6 August 1989, at 67 years of age.

From 1986 to 1989, Beattie Casely-Hayford worked with his son Pinnock Casely-Hayford to film the first HIV/AIDS patient at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital's Fevers Ward that was operated by Dr. Neequaye. Later Casely-Hayford collaborated with Professor Kwashi Quartey and Dr. Cecilia Bentsi as they visited and treated many AIDS victims. They travelled as far as Somanya and documented their visits on video.

Casely-Hayford was a member of the Baháʼí Faith from 1973. In 1986, he led a Baháʼí delegation to deliver a Peace message to the Ghana Government led by the then Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings.

In the early 1960s, Casely-Hayford introduced the Do Show, a talent show that was open to all through auditions. One of the products of the Do Show is the Paris-based singer Bibie Brew.

The Ghanaian teens of the 1960s also had their chance and several pop music competitions were held at the Arts Centre. Casely-Hayford's five sons all played guitar in their teens. His oldest son, Ralph, a bassist, and a nephew, Roy, played in one of Ghana's professional pop bands, "The Saints", and they performed at the Accra Arts Centre.

Casely-Hayford was instrumental in the arrangements during the 1956 visit of Louis Armstrong, his wife Lucille, and band to Ghana. Casely-Hayford helped to arrange a durbar at Achimota School, where Louis and Lucille Armstrong and the band members were entertained by Ghanaian cultural dancers and musicians.

Another American resident in Ghana, dentist Robert Lee, who had relocated with his family to Ghana from the US in 1956, taught voice and was also often on stage.