It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing away of our Honorary President and Chairman of the ECCEA, Jacques Daudin on the 16th October.  Jacques, both humanist and fervent defender of the natural world was one of the architects of our organisation and that of the Union Island Association for Ecological Preservation. Son of  French Ambassador Pierre Daudin, who would author the Manchurian-French dictionary, Jacques was brought up in China, a country and people he was deeply attached to. As a teenager he was interned in a Japanese prison camp during World War Two, from which he escaped to join the Allied forces.

As an Agronomist Jacques travelled the world and confronted many adventures.  He would be the single survivor of a plane crash in Bordeaux where 44 people lost their lives.  Jacques finally found his way to the West Indies where he worked to improve crop diversification and banana production, founding an “island hopping” airline company that would become Air Martinique.  Jacques fell in love with the sublime Grenadine Archipelago of St. Vincent, settling there in 1973, never to leave.

Known to all of us for his elegance and humility, his higher intellect,  kindness and immense generosity, Jacques never hesitated to disburse his limited funds for science based environmental impact assessments when confronted with the inacceptable destruction of forest tracks and coral reefs; his tenacity was legendary.

He is remembered by the larger number for the loving care he showered on his numerous island step  children and the dozens of youths he cared for in the Archipelago, ensuring both their sustenance and education.  Jacque’s constant quest for knowledge is portrayed in his multiple discoveries, his works on the flora and fauna of the region and his caring research and publication on the past and present of the islanders he cherished. 

LS

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