Marcel Flouret, (March 29, 1892 – November 29, 1971) was a French

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

, member of the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

, and fourth

Chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

Électricité de France Électricité de France S.A. (literally ''Electricity of France''), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational electric utility company, largely owned by the French state. Headquartered in Paris, with €71.2 billion in revenues in 2 ...

(EDF) from 1952 to 1962.

Career

Flouret graduated from the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

in 1912. Committed to the army for four years initially, he became a Second Lieutenant on August 2, 1914, a Lieutenant Airman on August 2, 1916, and an aviation squadron leader and Captain on December 29, 1920. Wounded, Flouret earned the

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

with four citations. On foreign missions from 1920 to 1925, Flouret participated in aviation operations in Austria and Hungary. He then became a professor at the War College at the Center of Advanced Military Studies in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, Poland. After entering the War College in March 1925, he then transferred to the Ministry of Finance as Deputy Chief of Staff for Joseph Caillaux on April 18, 1925, and left the army in November 1925. Various bureaucratic roles followed from 1925 to at least 1944, including becoming the Chief of staff of the Minister of Finance,

Vincent Auriol Vincent Jules Auriol (; 27 August 1884 – 1 January 1966) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1947 to 1954. Early life and politics Auriol was born in Revel, Haute-Garonne, as the only child of Jacques Antoine Aurio ...

on June 4, 1936, and becoming the Director of Staff for Auriol, the Minister of Justice, on July 1, 1937. He was mobilized as a Lieutenant Colonel in September 1939 until June 1940. He was the director of staff for Blocus Georges Monnet and Bertrand Pujo in 1940. He was a

member, operating under the name ''Fevrier'' – ''February'', when he took City Hall of Paris on August 20, 1944. Flouret performed the duties of Prefect of the

Seine Department Seine was the former department of France encompassing Paris and its immediate suburbs. It is the only enclaved department of France at that time. Its prefecture was Paris and its INSEE number was 75. The Seine department was disbanded in 1968 ...

from September 2, 1944, with Edgar Pisani, future minister of General de Gaulle, as the director of his cabinet. Following the liberation of France, Flouret became an executive at various organizations. This included becoming an Honorary Prefect of the Department of Seine in August 1946, the chair of the national railways,

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...

, in September 1946, the Governor of the Banque de l'Algérie et de la Tunisie on May 18, 1949, and the Chair of Électricité de France (EDF) in 1952. His role at SNCF ended in 1949. Flouret was the Chair of EDF for ten years from 1952 to 1962, after which he took an honorary chair role. He was known for investing heavily in the electrification of France after World War II. Flouret died in

Mougins Mougins (; oc, Mogins ; la, Muginum ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes département in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 19,982. It is located on the heights of Cannes, in the a ...

in 1971.

Awards

Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

(January 15, 1954) *

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Commandeur ribbon

Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (March 26, 1962) * Presidential Medal of Freedom (ribbon)

Medal of Freedom * Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 ribbon

(World War I)

Publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flouret, Marcel 1892 births 20th-century French engineers French soldiers Électricité de France 1971 deaths Recipients of the Legion of Honour People from Bergerac, Dordogne Recipients of the Medal of Freedom Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres École Polytechnique alumni