King's remembers Jacques Goutor 1931-2012
Many thanks to Paul Webb for this submission
It is with a great sense of loss that we report the death of Dr Jacques Goutor, retired Professor of History, on January 6 2011.
Jacques had arrived at King’s in 1969, one of a string of fresh faculty recruited by the new Principal Owen Carrigan to revitalize a College that had just barely escaped closure. Jacques became the guiding light of History, and in the 70’s assembled a team of younger faculty who saw their main role to be in undergraduate education – Webb, Killan and Jarvis.
More recently, current KUC professors, and KUC alumni, Rob Ventresca and Stephanie Bangarth credit Jacques with “recruiting” them into graduate work when they had been contemplating other paths. Jacques’ calm leadership certainly had major impact on the History Department, and established his unswerving principle that the needs of the students always, without exception, came first. His classes were habitually full, -- students responded as much to his style as to the content of the lectures. One student of the class of ’78 recalls her astonishment at seeing his office bedecked with literally dozens of his children’s art works from grades four and five, indicative of the devoted family man he was in his private life. In administration he also served as Department Chair of Social Science, then of History and Political Science. His unseen contributions, however, were also immense, since he had major roles in the arduous formation of most of the documents which have ever since governed our procedures, especially perhaps in “Conditions of Appointment for Faculty.” The Goutor fingerprint is yet evident in our daily operations and methods. Jacques’ loss will be much lamented, though balanced with gratitude for his long and devoted service and friendship. He leaves his wife Betty, son David, daughter Jaqueline, and two grandchildren.
A memorial will be held at the College in early February. Details will be posted on this website when available. Enquiries may be sent to pwebb@uwo.ca
