Gilbert Demolins, grandson of the founder of École des Roches, has gone.

Born on July 4, 1923, Gilbert Demolins died on November 7, 2023, aged over 100.

Grandson of École des Roches founder Edmond Demolins (1852-1907), Gilbert Demolins was the son of Jules Demolins (1885-1968), whose two years spent at the British New School in Bedales had inspired his father to write his book, A quoi tient la supériorité des Anglo-Saxons (1897), a resounding success in France. This work was to inspire his manifesto L'Education Nouvelle, which in 1898 announced the forthcoming opening of the prototype of a "new school" in France: the École des Roches, in October 1899.

Although Gilbert Demolins was not a student at Les Roches, he was nonetheless attached to it by filiation and out of respect for his forefather's work. On November 11, 2018, he came to attend the captains' nomination party, to discover the christening of the new class (of which Jessica Curtis was the godmother) and delivered a brief, heartfelt speech tinged with his delicate sense of humor. He explained to the young Rocheuses and Rocheux who were listening to him, no doubt impressed by the great age of this gentleman who, at over 95, had made the trip to see them, what his values were: to be courageous, to make an effort and to be enterprising: "You have to know how to gain the trust of your leaders, of those with whom and for whom you work" he insisted. He then went to pay his respects at his grandfather's grave, which lies near the church on the site of the school he had founded. Gilbert Demolins then stressed the importance of perpetuating the memory of the founder of Les Roches. After the November 11th festivities, students from the school and AERN alumni laid flowers at the memorial.

I was honored to benefit from Gilbert Demolins' trust and loyal friendship. I met him in the late 1990s through his cousin Philippe Prieur, who had been a student at Les Roches (Vallon, 1931-1939) and was one of the first to welcome me to AERN when he was a committee member under Robert Glaenzer. I also met his brother Bernard Demolins (1918-2012), Compagnon de France de la Libération, who had carried out impressive genealogical research to reconstruct all the ramifications between the various families revolving around the Demolins name. I also met other members of their family during a visit to the École des Roches, which many of them discovered on this occasion. Last but not least, Gilbert Demolins was present, along with many other Les Roches alumni, at my doctoral thesis defense at the Sorbonne in 2006. In addition, for decades he had been a regular contributor to the Société d'Economie et de Sciences sociales, a research association heir to the Science sociale founded by Edmond Demolins, whose Les Etudes sociales journal highlights the work of researchers on the disciples of Frédéric Le Play, of whom Edmond Demolins was a leading figure.

During one of his kind invitations, Gilbert Demolins answered my questions about his life. He told me, in his clear, cheerful voice, that he had lived a happy youth, attending school in Saint-Malo, where his parents lived and had 11 children in all. In 1940, at the age of 17, he attended a business school in Angers, the ESCA (École Supérieure de Commerce d'Angers). At 22, after the war, he had to find work. He agreed to go to Africa at the suggestion of the Compagnie française d'Afrique occidentale, for which he worked for 15 years: 10 in Ghana and 5 in Côte d'Ivoire. He married Yvette Duclos and had two children, Sophie and Eric. At the age of 37, to everyone's astonishment, he resigned from his position in Africa, in Abidjan. He took the risk of leaving a comfortable and secure position to return to France with his family. Thanks to the connections of a Polytechnicien friend, whose industrialist father advised him to set up a business manufacturing a new material with promising prospects, PVC, Gilbert Demolins became Sales Director of Eternit, France's largest PVC pipe and material manufacturing group. At the age of 54, he accepted the Eternit Group's offer of early retirement on comfortable terms for the rest of his life. And for as long as he could, Gilbert Demolins played golf, his eternal passion.

Nathalie Duval

École des Roches historian

Associate Professor at Sorbonne University