Glendon bids farewell to former principal Philippe Garigue

Philippe Garigue, a former principal of Glendon, died during the night of March 25-26. His funeral took place on March 31 at the Saint-Bonaventure Church in Toronto.

A commemorative service in honour of Prof. Garigue will take place today, from 5 to 7pm, in the Albert Tucker Senior Common Room, third floor of York Hall, Glendon campus. The York community is invited to join the family at this event.

Left: Philippe Garigue

Born into an Anglo-French family in Manchester, England, Prof. Garigue completed his elementary and secondary education in Paris. Subsequently, he attended the London School of Economics, and later received his doctorate in anthropology from the University of London. He enlisted in the British Armed Forces in 1939 and took part in the African and European campaigns as liaison between the Allied troops and Italian patriots. In fact, the town of Assisi was liberated under his command.

Prof. Garigue came to Canada in 1954, on the invitation of McGill University, to develop research on French Canada. In 1957, he was designated dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Montreal, a post he held for 15 years. During the same period, the Government of Quebec named him president of the Advisory Committee for the Ministry of Social & Family Concerns, and he was chosen as president of the United Nations’ International Union of Family Organizations. Prof. Garigue was also an adviser to the federal Department of Health & Welfare, and he was one of the founder-directors of the Vanier Family Institute.

From 1980 to 1987, Prof. Garigue served as principal of Glendon, the bilingual liberal arts Faculty of York University, where his contributions included the creation of the International Studies Program, among the first in Canada.

His numerous publications include several essays, among them La vie familiale des Canadiens Français, Analyse du comportement familial (which won the Quebec Literary Prize), Famille, sciences et politiques, and Questions de stratégie et de métastratégie. He also published four poetry collections: Le temps vivant, L’humaine demeure, De la condition humaine, and Le Temps de l’intelligence (which garnered the Prize of the French Consulate in Toronto).

Prof. Garigue was a Member of the Royal Society of Canada (1965); Grand Officer of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta; Officer of the Order of Canada (1986); holder of the Grand Cross of Spain’s Order of Cisneros (1971); Officer of the Legion of Honour of France (1987); and the recipient of the Commemorative Medal of the 125th Anniversary of Canadian Conferation (1992) and numerous other military and civilian decorations.

York University has created a special fund in memory of Prof. Garigue. Donations may be contributed by cheque, made out to the York University Foundation / Glendon College, for the Philippe Garigue Memorial Fund.

Contributions can be forwarded to:
Glendon Advancement Office
Suite 218, Glendon Hall
2275 Bayview Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M4N 3M6
Tel : 416-487-6824

A donation form is available here.