3416401561

10 Bernard Pouyaud

Jean Rodier: pioneer and father of tropical hydrology

The Hydrological Days ofOrstom, 1995 whose subject was "Tropical hydrology: a geo-science and a tool for sustainability", were dedicated to the memory of Jean Rodier who died on 1 May 1994. The present article is extracted from the inaugural paper which recalls the scientific and personal career of the founder of the Hydrological Section of Orstom and the "father" of the French school of tropical hydrology.

When early in May 1966, in the company of Erie Cadier and on the advice of Maurice Parde, our Professor of "Potamology" in Grenoble, we were welcomed by Jean Rodier to the headquarters of the Central Hydrological Service of Orstom, 1 Leon Cladel Street, under an engraving illustrating the first gaugings taken by the Chemical method ..., I did not imagine that 29 years later I would be remembering, on behalf of the French hydrological community, what an extraordinary man and what a respected and exemplary chief was this trainer of several generations of French and foreign, hydrologists, especially those from Africa.

Jean Rodier was born on 18 June 1914 in Boulogne sur Seine. He was the father of nine children, but many of us consider ourselves as being his spiritual heirs. After a mathematics and literaturę baccalaureat, he was a pupil of the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, where he came fourth in the year 1938. He returned to University some 30 years later in October 1964, producing an Engineering Doctorate thesis at the Faculte des Sciences of Toulouse, entitled "Hydrological regimes of Black Africa west of Congo". As a Sub-lieutenant of the reserve at the end of his military service (1938-1939), he was immediately called up, as were many men of his generation, and took part in the battles of the Second World War between 1939 and 1940. He served in the 17th Battalion of Tanks where he won a mention in dispatches from his Division.

THEN BEGAN HIS PROFESSIONAL LIFE

From November 1940 to December 1941, he practised his talents as an engineer at Maurice Damien’s company, specializing in "electroplastics". On 15 January 1942, he came into touch with "Electricity" as an engineering assistant to the head of the Electro-mechanics Department, then assistant to the head of the Civil Engineering Department of the Hydropower Company of La Cere (in the Massif Central). He worked there as a civil engineer, prospector and hydrologist. In April 1946, General De Gaulle, created EDF (Electricite de France, the French electricity producer), within the framework of the nationalization of energy producers. This absorbed the Hydropower Company of La Cere. At EDF, where he spent his whole career, the first function of Jean Rodier was as a chief engineer at the Solid Discharge Section. In April 1947 he was assigned to the General Inspection for the French and Foreign Union, which became a little later the Inspection Generale pour la Cooperation (IGECO, General Inspection for Cooperation), and then the Direction des Affaires Exterieures et de la Cooperation (DAFECO, Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Headąuarters). In 1949, he became the Head of the Prospecting and Hydrology Department of DAFECO, and he continued in this position till 1958.