2007 deaths

Alain_Etchegoyen

Alain Etchegoyen (6 November 1951 in Lille – 9 April 2007 in Le Mans), was a philosopher and novelist. He was the last Plan Commissionner before that Commission was abrogated. He wrote some twenty books, essays and novels.
A former student of l'École Normale Supérieure, he was a professor in classes prépas at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and in a professional lycée in Hauts-de-Seine.

Pierre_Dauzier

Pierre Dauzier (31 January 1939 in Périgueux – 28 September 2007 in Paris) was a French businessman.Dauzier was the president of Havas for 12 years, and left the company in 1998. He joined the company in 1963, when he was 24 years old.

Jean_Bottéro

Jean Bottéro (30 August 1914 – 15 December 2007) was a French historian born in Vallauris. He was a major Assyriologist and a renowned expert on the Ancient Near East. He died in Gif-sur-Yvette.

Fred_Chichin

Frédéric "Fred" Chichin (French pronunciation: [fʁedeʁik fʁɛd ʃiʃɛ̃]; 1 May 1954 – 28 November 2007) was a French musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
He was part of the pop-rock duo Les Rita Mitsouko, along with Catherine Ringer, whom he met in 1979. Prior to his work in Les Rita Mitsouko, Chichin had been active in the rock bands Fassbinder (with Jean Neplin), Taxi Girl (with Daniel Darc), and Gazoline (with Alain Kan).
Chichin died on the morning of 28 November 2007 from heart failure, following complications of the cancer the doctors had diagnosed two months earlier. He was buried 6 December 2007 in a private ceremony at the Parisian cemetery of Montmartre.

Felix_L._Sparks

Felix Laurence Sparks (August 2, 1917 – September 25, 2007) was an American attorney, government official, and military officer from Colorado. A veteran of World War II, he attained the rank of brigadier general in the Colorado Army National Guard and received the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. Sparks also served as District Attorney of Colorado's 7th Judicial District, an Associate Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court, and the longtime director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
A native of San Antonio, Sparks was raised and educated in Arizona and served as an enlisted soldier in the United States Army from 1936 to 1938. He then attended the University of Arizona, where he maintained his military interest by taking part in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps and several Citizens' Military Training Camps while also serving in the Army Reserve. In 1939, he was called to active duty for World War II, and in 1940 he received his commission as a second lieutenant. Assigned to the 45th Infantry Division, Sparks served with the division's 157th Infantry Regiment throughout the war, from its arrival in North Africa through combat in Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany. Near the end of the war, Sparks was commander of the 157th Infantry's 3rd Battalion, which he led during its participation in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. For his wartime service, Sparks was twice awarded both the Silver Star and the Purple Heart, as well as the French Croix de Guerre.
After the war, Sparks graduated from the University of Colorado Law School, was admitted to the bar, and practiced in Delta, Colorado. A leader of the local Democratic Party, Sparks served a term as District Attorney of Colorado's 7th Judicial District (1949–1953), and briefly filled a vacancy as an Associate Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court (1956). In 1957, Sparks was appointed attorney for the Colorado Water Conservation Board. In 1958, he became the board's director, and he served in this position until retiring in 1979.
In addition to pursuing careers in law and government, Sparks continued to serve in the military. Assigned as executive officer of the 157th Regimental Combat Team (RCT), a unit of the Colorado Army National Guard, Sparks subsequently commanded the RCT's 1st Battalion. He commanded the 169th Field Artillery Group as a colonel in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including recall to active duty for several months during the Berlin Crisis of 1961. Sparks was promoted to brigadier general in 1968 and assigned as the Colorado National Guard's assistant adjutant general for army and commander of the Colorado Army National Guard. Sparks served in the National Guard until reaching the mandatory retirement age in 1977.
Sparks died in Lakewood, Colorado, on September 25, 2007. He was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

Gregory_Lemarchal

Grégory Jean-Paul Lemarchal (13 May 1983 – 30 April 2007), known professionally as Grégory Lemarchal, was a French singer who rose to fame by winning the fourth series of the reality television show Star Academy, which was broadcast on the TF1.
He died at the age of 23 of health complications (cystic fibrosis) while waiting in hospital for a lung transplant. A posthumous album, La Voix d'un ange, was released with profits going towards the Association Grégory Lemarchal charity. A compilation, Rêves, was released in 2009. He has sold more than 2 million albums.Grégory Lemarchal remains an emblematic figure in France, often associated in the research and fight against cystic fibrosis.

Jan_Wolkers

Jan Hendrik Wolkers (26 October 1925 – 19 October 2007) was a Dutch author, sculptor and painter. Wolkers is considered by some to be one of the "Great Four" writers of post-World War II Dutch literature, alongside Willem Frederik Hermans, Harry Mulisch and Gerard Reve (the latter authors are also known as the "Great Three").Wolkers was born in Oegstgeest. He became noted as an author in the 1960s mainly for his graphic descriptions of sexual acts, which were often subject of controversy. His 1969 novel Turks Fruit was translated into ten different languages and published in English as Turkish Delight. It was also made into a highly successful movie, the Paul Verhoeven-directed Turks Fruit (1972) which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and in 1999 won the award for Best Dutch Film of the Century.Wolkers declined several literary awards. In 1982 he refused the Constantijn Huygensprijs, and in 1989 he refused the P.C. Hooftprijs.
From 1980 until his death, Wolkers resided on the Dutch island of Texel. He died on 19 October 2007, aged 81, at his Texel home and was cremated in Amsterdam at De Nieuwe Ooster cemetery.
A number of his outdoor sculptures in the Netherlands have been subject to vandalism, presumably due to his use of glass as a construction material. Some examples are the Auschwitz monument in Amsterdam and the monument on the dike at Ceres on Texel. In reaction to the destruction of the monument in 2003, Wolkers announced that he would use less glass and more steel for such monuments in future. The Jac. P. Thijsse monument on Texel does contain more steel, but glass is still a substantial part of the artwork.
Since 2019, the private and literary archive of Jan Wolkers has been available at Leiden University Library.