Born on October 18, 1931, Robert T. (Bob) Francoeur, PhD, ACS, of Rockaway, New Jersey, died on October 15, 2012, from complications of Parkinson's disease.
Dr. Francoeur received a bachelor of arts in philosophy and English at Sacred Heart College in 1953 and a master of arts in Catholic theology at Saint Vincent College in 1957; he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio, in 1958. He received his master of science in biology at the University of Detroit in 1961; a doctorate in experimental embryology at the University of Delaware in 1967; and the ACS (American College of Sexologists) certification in sexology at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality (IASHS) in 1979.
Dr. Francoeur's main work was to synthesize and integrate the findings of primary sexological researchers. He was the author of 22 books; contributor to 78 textbooks, handbooks, and encyclopedias; author of 58 technical papers on various aspects of sexuality; and editor in chief of The Complete Dictionary of Sexology (Citation1991, Citation1995). He considered his final work, the award-winning The Continuum Complete International Encyclopedia of Sexuality (Citation2004), which he edited with Ray Noonan, to be his legacy that would live on. Its crowning achievement was that the entire book was made available to students and scholars worldwide with free and open access at the Web site of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction (http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/ccies). He is also credited with helping introduce and popularize controversial French philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to American audiences. He wrote the foreword to the first English translation of Teilhard's writing, The Appearance of Man, in Citation1965. He founded the American Teilhard de Chardin Association in 1964 and served as its first president.
A fellow of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, he was professor emeritus of human sexuality at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey, where he taught from 1971 to 1998 in the biology and allied health sciences department. In 2003, Dr. Francoeur joined the National Advisory Council for implementation of former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher's Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior 2001. He was also adjunct professor in the doctoral program in human sexuality at New York University and professor in the New York University Sexuality in Two Cultures program in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Dr. Francoeur was honored with numerous accolades throughout his career, including the Sunoco Science Seminarist award (National Science Teachers Association, 1974), the annual award by the Educational Foundation for Human Sexuality (1978), Fairleigh Dickinson's Distinguished Faculty Award for Research and Scholarship (1992), the Public Service Award (Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, 1999), and the Golden Brick Award (Center for Family Life Education, 2008). In 2007 he was awarded the Magnus Hirschfeld medal by the German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research (DGSS) in the category of sexual reform. He served on the editorial advisory board for both the American Journal of Sexuality Education and the Journal of Sex Research.
Dr. Francoeur was a teacher who believed in the unfettered inquiry and dissemination of knowledge related to human sexuality. With that knowledge comes the potential for full individual development. Contributions can be made in Robert's memory to the charity or nonprofit of your choice.
Tout ce qui monte, converge.
—Pierre Teihard de Chardin
The future is what we decide to make it. We are all co-creators of the world to be.
—Robert T. Francoeur
References
- Francoeur , R. T. ( 1991 ). The complete dictionary of sexology . New York , NY : Continuum Press .
- Francoeur , R. T. ( 1995 ). The complete dictionary of sexology () , 2nd ed. . New York , NY : Continuum Press .
- Francoeur , R. T. , & Noonan , R. J. ( 2004 ). The Continuum complete international encyclopedia of sexuality . New York , NY : Continuum Press .
- Teilhard de Chardin , P. ( 1965 ). The appearance of man (J. M. Cohen, Trans.) . New York , NY : Harper Collins Press .