![\"Juliette](\"https:\/\/webarchive.umw.edu\/eagleeye\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/01\/blessing-photo-1974-jpeg-for-web-768x608-1-300x238.jpg\")
Juliette Breffort Blessing as featured in the 1974 Battlefield<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cI first met Madame Blessing when I was a freshman in her French Civilization and Literature class,\u201d says Kathy Liggett Leis \u201969<\/strong>. \u201cThanks to her expert teaching, I became totally enamored with the subject and changed my major to French. Her faith in me was unwavering.\u201d<\/p>\n UMW Professor Ana Garcia Chichester \u201976<\/strong> remembers Dr. Blessing as a dedicated professor and role model. \u201cI was a French major, so I had several courses with her and benefited from her love of literature,\u201d says Ana. \u201cI still remember the nineteenth century poetry course I took with her. She loved to read and recite poetry to our class. Her spoken French was beautiful and she was very proud of her Parisian accent!\u201d<\/p>\n Other students, including Catherine B. Elwell \u201973,<\/strong> remember Dr. Blessing from a freshman liberal arts seminar. \u201cIt was a stimulating academic course, which I appreciated as an introduction to my campus life at MWC,\u201d says Cathy. \u201cI remember Madame Blessing as very friendly, warm, approachable, and lighthearted.\u201d<\/p>\n A native of France, Dr. Blessing held degrees from the University of Lille, the University of Paris, and the University of Dijon. In 1982, she was honored with the Ordre des Palmes Academiques,<\/em> an award from the French government in recognition of her contributions as a \u201cdistinguished academic or teacher for valuable service to universities, education, and science.\u201d The award is one of the oldest civil honors bestowed by the French Republic.<\/p>\n Dr. Blessing retired from Mary Washington in 1992 after 35 years of teaching, and she was awarded the title of Professor Emerita of Modern Foreign Languages. She lived in Washington, D.C., until her passing in 2020 at the age of 94.<\/p>\n Always thinking of ways to help and advance students, Dr. Blessing included arrangements in her will to create a scholarship at Mary Washington. The UMW Board of Visitors recently approved the new Juliette Breffort Blessing Scholarship for French Study,<\/strong> which will support study abroad opportunities for a junior or senior majoring in French language.<\/p>\n Kathy Leis says her former professor\u2019s passing is a profound loss. \u201cDr. Blessing was the pivotal force in my life. Her love of the French language became my life-long passion and set me on my life path. I truly credit her with my immensely rewarding career teaching French, an unlikely outcome for a girl from Alabama whose spoken French at the time was \u2013charitably \u2013 appalling.\u201d<\/p>\n Kathy adds, \u201cI am who I am because of Juliette Blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n