WILLIAMSBURG, VA, January 19, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to honor Louise Fay Despres with inclusion in Who's Who in the World. An accomplished listee, Ms. Despres celebrates many years' experience in her professional fields of French and Spanish, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes she has accrued in her field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Having served her community as a French language teacher for more than four decades, Ms. Despres retired from teaching in 2012. She came of age among family educators, and began studying French with her mother as a child, after which she quickly developed a passion for the language. Ms. Despres studied the pipe organ with Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts in France, before earning a Bachelor of Arts in French at Connecticut College in 1966. She holds a Master of Arts in teaching French from Brown University, and a second Master of Arts in French from Middlebury College.
Ms. Despres began her career teaching at North Haven (Connecticut) High School's foreign language program in 1967, departing in 1969 to teach at High Plains Elementary School in Orange, Connecticut where she taught twelve short classes a day to third through sixth graders. In 1970 she accepted a position teaching French at New Canaan High School, where she would remain until her retirement. In her time at New Canaan High School, she taught French classes, including Advanced Placement French language and literature, supervised independent study curriculum and administration, and served as the chairperson of the department of world languages for five years. Ms. Despres stepped down from full-time work in 2007, remaining at the school as a part-time teacher in French and Spanish until January of the 2011 - 2012 academic year.
During much of her teaching career, Ms. Despres was active in language curriculum review, test proctoring and school community events for New Canaan Schools. She provided her professional expertise to the state of Connecticut as a teacher assessor of new teachers, and taught summer school at New Canaan High School and Saxe Middle School, both in New Canaan.
Ms. Despres is passionate about community support, and has been a supporter of educational development and human services initiatives for decades. In her retirement, she was a volunteer for several projects administered by the Hyde Park Union Church of Chicago and the University of Chicago Service League, before moving to Virginia where she participates at the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church Hunger and Homeless Committee, and recently concluded a term as co-president of the Williamsburg Philanthropic Educational Organization's Reciprocity Chapter. Ms. Despres attributes much of her success to the inspiration and encouragement of her early professional mentor Rebecca Satterlee Robbins as well as to her parents. She is proud to have spent her career sharing her love of the French language and culture with students. In recognition of her outstanding career contributions, she was a grantee of the French government and the North Haven Board of Education for study in France, and was presented with the New England College Board Advanced Placement Teacher Recognition Award and a 2001 Pegasus Pride Award from the Connecticut Council of Language Teachers. In the summer of 1983 she received a grant to study the poetry of Apollinaire, Baudelaire, and Cesaire.
Looking toward the future, Ms. Despres aspires to continue her volunteerism with the Philanthropic Educational Organization's Sisterhood, and her church.
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