A representative of the French Consulate will present retired OSU professors, Ron du Bois and J.Q. Lynd, the French Legion of Honor Medal for their military service during World War II. The ceremony will take place Saturday, Oct. 18, at 11:00 a.m. in the Gardiner Art Gallery at Oklahoma State University.
Du Bois, a retired emeritus professor, specialized in ceramics and visual arts with the OSU department of art from 1960 to 1986. While at OSU, he introduced the first course on African Art at any Oklahoma university. Some of his work is featured in the Oklahoma State Art Collection at the state Capitol.
While in the Army, du Bois and the 29th Infantry entered Normandy about a month after the D-Day campaign. A few months later, he sustained a shrapnel injury. After the war, du Bois used the G.I. bill to study art in France before returning to the U.S.
Lynd, a fellow retired OSU emeritus professor in plant and soil sciences, is also being honored for his service as commander of an Army platoon that entered France at Utah Beach on D-Day. Lynd served as a soil microbiology professor at OSU from 1951 until his retirement in 1992.
Today, there are roughly 93,000 living recipients of the French Legion of Honor, France’s highest decoration, but for an American to qualify he or she would need to be a WWII veteran who has fought in one of the main campaigns in French territory.
Sponsors of the Legion of Honor ceremony are the French government, the Military Order of the Purple Heart Chapter 820, and the OSU art department. The ceremony is open to the public.