Joseph François (28/02/1929 - 19/08/2009), a benefactor who left us
We are learning with emotion and sadness that our friend Joseph departed for eternity on Wednesday August 19th.
His absence has already left a big gap for everybody seeing him often before : friends, family and a great deal of sports people from a player toward a Belgian or foreigner leader since his sport federation has been attached to him since his early childhood.
He was president of FRSSB (= Fédération Royale Sportive des Sourds de Belgique = Royal Sport Federation for Belgian Deaf People) from 1997 to 2002 and from 2006 to 2009 after being vice president from 1980 to 1997 and general secretary from 1955 to 1960 beside Antoine Dresse, FRSSB president-founder and internationally well-known CISS (actually Deaflympics) secretary-founder.
Moreover, he was CISS tennis technical commissioner from 1955 to 1984; therefore, he spent 29 years of presence on international scene and would have contributed indirectly to the E.D.S.O. creation. He was also tennis commissioner on national level from 1953 to 1989.
Besides the sport, Joseph worked for other associtations such as FFSB (= Fédération Francophone des Sourds de Belgique = Belgian French-speaking Federation for Deaf people), La Charette (= Senior Deaf people's home) of which he was one of the founders, Woluwe Club for the Deaf and Info-Sourds (= Deaf Info = interpretation service).
Joseph loves life and human contacts. We would never forget him as a brave, diplomatic and open man. For all, he was always thinking about a Deaf Person's amelioration in any social, cultural and sport way of life.
With Antoine Dresse, Eugene Fraiture, Henri Compere and many other ones who left us, he is among leaders who permitted silencious sports to spread outside our frontiers.
B.D.C. Board are presenting his most sincere condoleances to his spouse and to his family.
