Gérald Coppenrath (22 April 1922 – 4 November 2008) was a

French Polynesia French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The t ...

n lawyer and politician who represented French Polynesia in the

Senate of France The Senate (, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly (France), National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. It is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' and ...

between 1958 and 1962. Born in

Papeete Papeete (Tahitian language, Tahitian: ''Papeʻetē'', pronounced ; old name: ''Vaiʻetē''Personal communication with Michael Koch in ) is the capital city of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of the France, French Republic in the Pacific ...

, Tahiti he moved to France and studied at the

University of Poitiers The University of Poitiers (UP; , ) is a public university located in Poitiers, France. It is a member of the Coimbra Group. It is multidisciplinary and contributes to making Poitiers the city with the highest student/inhabitant ratio in France ...

. He later returned to Tahiti in 1948. He was elected to the

Assembly of French Polynesia The Assembly of French Polynesia (, ; Tahitian: ''Te apoʻoraʻa rahi o te fenua Māʻohi'') is the unicameral legislature of French Polynesia, an overseas country of the French Republic. It is located at Place Tarahoi in Papeete, Tahiti. It wa ...

in the 1957 French Polynesian legislative election as a candidate for the Tahitian Union. On 8 June 1958 he was elected senator, winning by 13 votes to 11. He was re-elected on 26 April 1959, when he won by 43 votes against 17. He stayed in office until 1962. He was the first president of the Papeete bar from 1973 To 1974. He was the older brother of

Hubert Hubert is a Germanic masculine given name, from ''hug'' "mind" and '' beraht'' "bright". It also occurs as a surname. Saint Hubert of Liège (or Hubertus) (c. 656 – 30 May 727) is the patron saint of hunters, mathematicians, opticians, and m ...

and Michel Coppenrath. Both became

Archbishops In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdioc ...

. Michel died on 16 August 2008. Coppenrath died on 4 November 2008.Décès de l'ancien sénateur Gérald Coppenrath (French)
Tahiti Presse

References

1922 births 2008 deaths Members of the Assembly of French Polynesia French Polynesian journalists People from Papeete French senators of the Fifth Republic French male non-fiction writers Senators of French Polynesia 20th-century French journalists 20th-century French male writers {{FrenchPolynesia-politician-stub