Odile de Vasselot de Régné was born on Jan. 6, 1922, in Saumur, the seat of the French cavalry faculty, within the Loire Valley, to Gaston de Vasselot de Régné and Chantal de Cugnac.
She grew up largely in Metz, learning with the nuns of the Sacred Coronary heart. Her father was stationed there earlier than the warfare, as was Colonel de Gaulle, who headed the 507th Régiment de Chars, or Mobilized Unit. She recalled enjoying with de Gaulle’s son, Philippe, as a baby.
She obtained her baccalaureate diploma in 1939 and, after the warfare, a level in historical past from the Sorbonne. In 1947, she joined the spiritual congregation of the Sisters of Saint Francis Xavier. In 1959, the congregation despatched her to Abidjan, in Ivory Coast, to begin a women’ faculty in cooperation with the progressive authorities of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the nation’s first president.
The college opened in 1962, and Ms. de Vasselot remained its director till 1988, when she returned to France. The Ivorian newspaper Fraternité Matin wrote not too long ago that “underneath the enlightened route of Mme. de Vasselot, this institution, excess of a faculty, turned the important thing establishment that solid the feminine elite of this nation.”
No rapid household survives Ms. de Vasselot. Her funeral mass was held on Tuesday on the Cathedral of Saint-Louis-des-Invalides in Paris, an honor reserved for France’s warfare heroes.
In November, as Mr. Macron was adorning her with the Nationwide Order of Benefit on the Élysée Palace, she responded with bracing words: “What I need to say to younger folks is, ‘By no means hand over, by no means hand over, no matter difficulties you face.’”
