Prof. G??rard Defaux died in Paris on Dec. 31, 2004, after being diagnosed with a brain tumor in early February of last year. Defaux had been a Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Hopkins since 1981.
Stephen G. Nichols, James M. Beall Professor of French and Humanities and chair of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Hopkins, was a colleague of Defaux.
"G??rard Defaux is someone who is almost impossible to replace," Nichols said. "He just represented the best that our profession can produce in terms of dedication to students, dedication to teaching, dedication to scholarship."
Nicholas added, "He trained students; he represented an incredible kind of integrity in his scholarship and his teaching."
In addition to his teaching duties, Professor Defaux was also a prolific author, publishing around 25 books in addition to over 100 articles.
Prof. Elena Russo, another colleague of Defaux, remembered him as "spontaneous and charming."
"He was really beloved by the students, the graduates and the undergraduates. When he got sick, his undergraduate students were crying; they all sent him cards," Russo said.
"He was always in a good mood, always coming to say hello in the morning, to knock on the door and see how I was doing. There's not going to be anybody else like him."
Second-year graduate student Alison Calhoun first had class with Defaux as a sophomore.
"Defaux was a very human professor," Calhoun said. "He was caring and kind to his students, recognizing their unique merits and unique intelligence. His zeal was contagious."
According to Calhoun, Defaux was an engaging professor, who wanted his students to have thoughts of their own.
"Defaux loved to provoke his students, perhaps because he knew he was making them think for themselves," Calhoun said. "In other words, agreeing or disagreeing with him, I think he wanted above all for his students to have ideas and defend them."
Calhoun also recalled Defaux's athletic abilities, mentioning that he biked to school and "probably could have left most undergrads in the dust. He used to say that having a sound body was as important as a sound mind."
Defaux had biked 30 miles the same day that he was diagnosed with brain cancer.
His funeral was held in Paris at P??re Lachaise cemetery on Jan. 7. A memorial service will be held at the Hopkins Club on Feb. 23 at 4:30 pm.
The Romance Languages and Literatures Department will also hold a one-day colloquium in his honor on Mar. 4 on the Homewood campus.
It will be attended by leading scholars in his field of 16th-century French literature, including Prof. Tom Conley of Harvard University, Dr. Deborah Losse from Arizona State University and Prof. Francois Rigolot from Princeton.
Defaux was born on May 9, 1937, in Paris. He did his doctoral work at the Sorbonne on Francois Rabelais and the Sophists.
After receiving his doctorate in 1967, Defaux began teaching at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, in Canada.
Afterwards, Defaux later taught at Bryn Mawr College and Yale University before coming to Hopkins in 1981.
He was the chair of the French Department for five years, before it became a part of the Romance Languages and Literatures department. Later in his career at Hopkins, Defaux became the director of graduate studies in French.
Defaux is survived by his wife Anne; a son Olivier and a daughter Emmanuele; and four grandchildren.
