Andre' Charles Deprez

ANDRE' CHARLES DEPREZ

June 30, 1928 - July 26, 2019 

Born into an expatriated Swiss family in Brussels, at age twelve Andre' was forced to flee with his mother and sister to Switzerland in June 1940 ahead of the World War II German invasion of Belgium.  After four years of high school in Lausanne, he attended a German-speaking high school in Aarau to prepare for the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, from which he graduated in 1951 with a degree in Chemistry.  After marriage to Jocelyn C. France, in 1952 the couple emigrated to Syracuse, NY where Andre' worked at Solvay for a year.  Wanting to expand his education, he won a two-year scholarship to MIT from which he graduated in 1955 with a Masters in Chemical Engineering.

With two children in tow, the couple moved to Wilmington, DE for a new job with DuPont.  Here they stayed for two years before moving to Norwalk, CT for Andre's definitive job with Scientific Design, a small cutting-edge technology company in New York, which was developing petrochemical engineering and plant design for sale all over the world.  After a five-year experience int he Paris office, Andre' became Senior VP of Sales back in New York.  The family settled in New Canaan, CT in 1964, with Andre' traveling all over the world, as this was the period of the petrochemical industry's great expansion.  In 1985 he also managed to scoop up a Master's degree from MIT's Sloan School of Business.

While in Paris, Andre' pioneered doing business behind the Iron Curtain, and when Nixon opened up to China, Andre' was in the forefront of technology exchange there.  Andre' firmly believed that the path to peace was to develop friendly commercial relations and build up the standard of living of people everywhere.  A man of strong convictions and broad cultural understanding, Andre's dedication to his ideals was instrumental in his lifelong success.

He lived his last years in Orlando, Fl and leaves behind his wife of 67 years, Jocelyn, two children, Marie-Therese Harper and Alexandre Deprez, and 10 grandchildren.

A graveside service will be held at 12:00 pm on Friday, August 9, 2019  at Dr. Phillips Cemetery in Orlando.