Associate Professor of French Studies Cécile Danehy

Associate Professor of French Studies Cécile Danehy died on October 20, 2019, in Providence, R.I., at the age of 63. She taught French language and literature at Wheaton for 22 years, up to her death.

Professor Daheny joined Wheaton’s French Department in 1997. During her tenure, she served on the executive committee of the International Comic Arts Forum from 1997 to 2011. She also wrote Racine à rebours: Une lecture de la rime (Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publications, 2003) and edited History and Politics in French-Language Comics and Graphic Novels (University Press of Mississippi, 2008).

Professor of French Studies Jonathan Walsh fondly recalled the professor as generous and caring, with a sharp wit and strong sense of humor.

“Whenever we in the department had questions about language or history, we would ask Cécile. She seemed to know everything, and when she didn’t, she went straight to her arsenal of reference books to quickly find an answer,” Walsh said. “She loved language, and that’s partly what made her such a great teacher. She had high standards for her students and worked hard to help them meet those standards.”

Professor Danehy was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and moved as a young girl to Dijon, France, where she grew up.

She received a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. Prior to joining Wheaton faculty, she taught French language and literature at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Professor Danehy loved the New York Times crossword puzzle, languages, idiomatic phrases, comic arts, sewing and knitting, and Marmite—a British food spread. She was a resident of Rumford, R.I., at the time of her death.