Jean-Jacques Demorest, a scholar and professor of French at leading American universities, died Nov. 16, 2013, in France. He was 93.
Born in France, Demorest joined the Free French Forces in 1941 and served as an officer in North Africa and in Italy, where he was severely wounded in 1944. The recipient of many decorations, he was a commander of the French Legion of Honor.
Demorest earned a Ph.D. in modern languages and literature from Princeton in 1949. His academic career began at the department of Romance languages at Duke, followed by Cornell, where he became head of the Romance literatures department. He then went to the Romance Languages and Literature department at Harvard, and ended his academic career at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he founded the French department.
Demorest wrote a war novel and numerous scholarly works on French literature of the 17th and 19th centuries, notably on Pascal and Flaubert. He also participated in various capacities in French government affairs, including working in 1959 with President Charles de Gaulle on the campaign for Algerian independence.
He is survived by his wife, Karin; two daughters; and one granddaughter.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA .