In Memory of Jean-Louis Cattanéo: March 13, 1920 – August 1, 2013
In Memory of Jean-Louis Cattanéo: March 13, 1920 – August 1, 2013
When I first came to the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at Rhodes University, I was immediately impressed by the depth and quality of the academic staff. For a small university of barely 1 500 students, Rhodes was already a cultural centre of note, with a group of international scholars of impressive repute and scope lending lustre to the country’s cultural and intellectual life.
In the sciences the presence of Professor Jack Gledhill in the world of physics brought immediate and unmistakable distinction; in Botany Eilie Gledhill and Amy Jacquot-Guillarmod lent weight to a team that had already earned a broad reputation, while Professors Hammond-Tooke, Baart, Oosthuizen, and several others had placed Rhodes on the international map in fields as far apart as religious studies and philosophy.
In English Guy Butler was recognised throughout the Commonwealth and beyond.
But in the field of culture and the arts my own attention was understandably first drawn to the trio of Cattanéo (French), Erbe (German) and Antonissen (Flemish and Afrikaans), all of them polyglots, people of wide and deep multicultural backgrounds and Renaissance learning.
Each of them had a library that could sustain a reasonably sized university.
Even at the age of more than ninety Jean-Louis Cattanéo could still make time to pursue his reading and his researches in six languages.
Antonissen, whose interest in music was no less than his passion for languages, conducted imaginary orchestras even on his death-bed.
Jean-Louis Cattanéo was born in Mozambique to Swiss missionary parents. He spent his early years at the mission station and was then sent to stay with relatives in Switzerland to be educated through high school.
He returned to Africa to be near his parents, learned English at Adams College in South Africa and obtained his BA and Masters degrees, with distinction, at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg where he was then appointed as Lecturer in French, the youngest lecturer in the university.
From there he then went to France for his doctoral studies in language and literature at the Sorbonne, following which he taught for two years at the prestigious Lycée de Saint Germain. In 1957, he returned to South Africa to head the French department at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, a position he held for three decades.
In Grahamstown, he was active in cultural affairs and also in the Presbyterian Church where he was a church elder for more than 30 years.
His promotion of French culture, literature and history was recognised by France and in 1976 he was awarded the country’s highest academic distinction when he was made a Chevalier of the Order of Academic Laurels.
He retired from Rhodes University in 1985, and in 1987 he joined his future wife, Donna Switzer, in Washington DC where she was beginning her diplomatic career.
They were married in 1989 in Switzerland and he accompanied her to her diplomatic postings in Nigeria, Indonesia, Argentina and South Africa.
Jean-Louis spoke six languages and frequently gave French and English lessons to students.
In 2003, he and Donna retired to Salt Lake City, which he thought looked somewhat like Switzerland. They continued to travel to Europe, Canada, Mexico and South Africa and made their final trip to Hawaii in May 2013.
In Utah he was a fan of Ballet West, the Shakespeare Festival and the symphony.
Jean-Louis particularly enjoyed his membership in the Salt Lake Committee on Foreign Relations and was devoted to Cottonwood Presbyterian Church and its members.
He is survived by Donna, his wife of 24 years, his daughters Jacqueline and Nicolette, his son Marc, his sister Antoinette Richard, and his grandchildren Tommy, Claire, Emily, Kimberley and Antoine.
He was predeceased by his first wife, Patricia, whom he met as a student.
Afterwards he was also close to his second family, Donna’s children Leslie, Greg, Nikki, and Joel and their children.
He was a proud and caring father and grandfather, a devoted husband, and he maintained lifelong contact with students and friends around the world.
For me his almost annual visits to Cape Town became focal points on the calendar, and a conversation with him was invariably a delightful and deeply rewarding re-immersion in a whole world of books and memories and rediscoveries of a never-lost past.
