Claude Isnard

Adieux My Daughter Claude Isnard

This is the true story of a poor French immigrant who became successful but lost his family. It is a primer for adults who love their families but love their careers more! The author traced 17 generations of his ancestors from France, including some of whom who fought along Joan of Arc at the Battle of the Orleans during the 100-Year War. Included is a musketeer (a real one, not an actor) who lead a charge against Prince Eugen of Savoy, and the Duke of Marlborough at the Battle of Malplaquet, during the Spanish Succession Wars. The human saga begins in Mauritius, a little island country in the Indian Ocean, home to Claude's family for generations. There, the family saw slavery, men off to war, unexpected pregnancies, and all "unpleasant" things that are not supposed to happen to "good" families. What happens when the rules of the family are hundreds of years old? Claude grew up in the war-torn streets of Marseilles, France during World War II and describes life under German occupation, bombardments, food restrictions, and his struggle to become an adolescent. He immigrated the U. S. in 1948, and although he had just escaped from a war, he volunteered to fight in another one. He served in the U. S. Air Force during the Korean War (Ground Control Approach Radar). Then, he started his career with Western Electric, the Bell Telephone Labs and AT&T International, all part of the Bell System of yesteryears. For over 20 years, he specialized in system tests and performance including the Anti-Ballistic Missile System (Communication Department Chief at the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands 1972-75). Ultimately, he became a US delegate to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the United Nations. Following his was then Secretary General of the ITU, appointed Isnard Chief Technical Advosir for the United Nations Development Program (UNPD) in Brazil where he lived three years. Despite all this success and his love of people, he discovered that his family had drifted away while his thoughts were in the sky, detecting, palaces, Amazonian villages or remote valleys of the Andes.