2020 Spring GBG: In Memoriam: Monique Duvoisin – Bordeaux Exchange Program

In Memoriam: Monique Duvoisin – Bordeaux Exchange Program

The Education Abroad office remembers Mlle. Monique Duvoisin, the “heart and soul” of the CU Boulder Bordeaux exchange program in France. Beginning in 1969, Mlle. Duvoisin worked for twenty years with the nearly 1,000 CU students who studied at the Université de Bordeaux. She wore many hats, from housing director, to counselor, to academic advisor, to mailman. She cared deeply for the students. Her niece, Florence Defos du Rau wrote, “Monique, who did not have any children of her own, loved "her" American students as her own children!” Bordeaux Global Buffs remember Mlle Duvoisin fondly. Jean Delaney, former director of the Office of International Education at CU Boulder wrote in The Peregrine (now Global Buffs Gazette) wrote in spring of 1990 that Mlle. Duvoisin was a "legend" … "every student who participated on the program in Bordeaux was touched by her care, concern, and administrative skills whether they knew it or not." 

Many program alumni visited Monique over the years. Dr. Ted and Mary Johnson were the directors of the CU Program at the Univ. of Bordeaux from 1972 to 1974 and worked closely with Monique. After they returned to the U.S., they remained lifelong friends and visited her whenever they were in Bordeaux. Marsha (Dow) MacColl, who spent her junior year abroad 1973-4 and graduated from CU in 1975, wrote that her time in Bordeaux with Mlle Duvoisin was “one of the best years” of her life. When Marsha visited Monique in 2017, Monique told her that all the CU students were very special to her and showed her a giant binder with all the former CU exchange students organized by year, with their names, parent addresses, and current addresses that alumni had sent to her.

 Mlle Duvoisin retired in 1989 and was honored in the August 1989 commencement ceremony at CU Boulder  where she received the University Medal from Chancellor James Corbridge. Many Bordeaux Global Buffs came to Boulder to attend Monique’s reception. After twenty years in retirement, she passed away September 23, 2019, surrounded by loved ones. The CU Boulder Education Abroad office thanks Mlle Duvoisin for her years of service and commitment to study abroad, and hopes to encourage CU Buffs to honor her legacy and continue to travel and explore the world.


Mlle. Duvoisin and Chancellor James Corbridge at August 1989 CU Boulder Commencement (reprinted from The Peregrine - Spring 1990)

The Global Buffs Gazette: Spring 2020 - News for CU Boulder Education Abroad Alumni

?Last Updated June 2020