Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber
Encyclopedia
Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, often referred to as JJSS (13 February 1924, Paris
–7 November 2006, Fécamp
) was a French
journalist
and politician
. He co-founded L'Express
in 1953 with Françoise Giroud
, and then went on to become president of the Radical Party in 1971. He oversaw its transition to the center-right, the party being thereafter known as Parti radical valoisien. He tried to found in 1972 the Reforming Movement
with Christian Democrat Jean Lecanuet
, with whom he supported Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
's conservative candidacy to the 1974 presidential election
.
, the eldest son of Emile Servan-Schreiber, journalist, who founded the financial newspaper Les Échos, and Denise Brésard. Three of his siblings are Brigitte Gros, former senator of Yvelines
and mayor of Meulan
, Christiane Collange, journalist, Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber, journalist.
Enjoying the full attention of his mother, JJSS was a highly gifted and hard-working child. He studied at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly and the Lycée de Grenoble, then returned to Paris. Beginning in adolescence, he accompanied his father to meetings with highly-placed people such as Raoul Dautry
, a cabinet-level officer under both Vichy
and liberated France. Accepted into the École polytechnique
, France's top engineering school, in 1943, he joined Charles de Gaulle
's Free French Forces
with his father and went to Alabama
for training as a fighter pilot. However, he never entered combat.
After the liberation, he graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in 1947, but never worked as an engineer. That same year, he married journalist and author Madeleine Chapsal. Fascinated by science and politics, Servan-Schreiber now discovered a taste for writing and journalism. The brilliant 25-year-old was hired to write for the recently-founded daily newspaper Le Monde
by its founder, Hubert Beuve-Méry
, as a foreign affairs editorialist. His deep acquaintance with the United States led him to specialize in the Cold War.
, writing a series of articles on the Indo-Chinese conflict. This led to his meeting the future Prime Minister Pierre Mendès-France
, at that time a dedicated opponent of the French military effort in Indo-China. In 1953, Servan-Schreiber co-founded (with Françoise Giroud
) the weekly L'Express
, initially published as a Saturday supplement to the family-owned newspaper Les Échos. On the magazine's open agenda was the elevation of Mendès-France to power. Due to government seizures and censorship, the magazine quickly enchanted both the youth and the most prominent intellectuals of the 1950s and '60s with its innovations. Among its contributors were Albert Camus
, Jean-Paul Sartre
, André Malraux
and François Mauriac
. During Mendès-France's pivotal eight-month term as Council President, JJSS served him as a shadow councilor.
Servan-Schreiber was conscripted to Algeria
in 1956 – to still his dissent, says Giroud. Drawing on his experiences there, he published his first book, "Lieutenant en Algérie". Its account of the brutality of French repression caused a controversy over its alleged deleterious effect on the army's morale. L'Express ran excerpts from the book.
Servan-Schreiber opposed General De Gaulle's return to power in 1958. However, De Gaulle was successful, and the influence of L'Express began to wane. In the same period, JJSS experienced other upsets. His family lost control of Les Échos; he split politically with Mendès-France; he divorced his first wife, and separated from Françoise Giroud, his mistress since the early 1950s, in order to marry Sabine Becq de Fouquières, who would become the mother of his four sons David
, Émile, Franklin, and Édouard.
In 1964, following a study which he commissioned from his brother Jean-Louis, JJSS transformed L'Express into a weekly news magazine patterned after TIME
. L'Express soared in popularity once again. It broadened its coverage to such subjects as new technologies and women's liberation
. It became a mirror of the changing French society.
He found a collaborator in Michel Albert
, who provided him with extensive documentation to inform his editorials. One of Albert's reports struck him particularly. It presented the United States
and Europe
as engaged in a silent economic war, in which Europe appeared to be completely outclassed on all fronts: management techniques, technological tools, and research capacity. Servan-Schreiber saw in this thesis the potential for a seminal book. He fleshed it out with reading keys and concrete proposals for a counter-offensive. The result was his international best-seller "Le Défi Américain" (The American Challenge, 1967). It sold 600,000 copies in France, unprecedented for a political essay, and was translated into 15 languages. This book was instrumental in creating a resurgence of French nationalism and drawing attention to the importance of transnational cooperation in Europe.
Building on the book's success, he traveled throughout Europe, speaking to packed lecture halls, touting the advantages of a federal Europe with a common currency and of a decentralized France.
(PRG), Servan-Schreiber became the president of the center-right Parti radical valoisien. He was elected Deputy of Nancy in 1970, but, later on the same year, he made the surprise decision to run against Jacques Chaban-Delmas
in Bordeaux
. He was soundly defeated, which tarnished his image. He served several terms or partial terms in the French National Assembly
, and was Minister for Reform in 1974 but, being opposed to nuclear tests, he was prompted to resign after three weeks by Prime Minister Jacques Chirac
. He was elected in 1976 as President of the regional council of Lorraine
, defeating Pierre Messmer
.
During his political career, he frequently waged progressive campaigns against the current of a sociologically conservative France. He advocated decentralization through regionalization; reallocation of resources from the Concorde
program to the Airbus
; an end to nuclear testing
; reform of the grandes écoles
; and computerization. He refused to cooperate with Georges Marchais
's Communist Party
. He seemed unable to play political power games. His centrist strategy was never successful and eventually brought down his party.
Wanting to extricate himself from the daily management of L'Express, he sold it to financier Jimmy Goldsmith
in 1977. Deprived of its power base, his political career quickly deteriorated. He lost his Assembly seat in 1978. He left the party in 1979 at the time of the first direct European elections
, to present a list of candidates under the slogan "Emploi, Égalité, Europe" (Employment, Equality, Europe) with Giroud. The list won only 1.84% of the votes, and Servan-Schreiber decided to retire from political life.
through computerization. He served once again as shadow councilor to his close acquaintances François Mitterrand
and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
; his friendship with the latter went back to the École Polytechnique. However, his initiative to create a center for the promotion of information technology in France turned into a money pit and closed down in 1984. He then moved to Pittsburgh
where he had his four sons (David, Émile, Franklin and Édouard) educated at Carnegie Mellon University
, a leader in computer science. Servan-Schreiber directed the university's international relations.
Returning to France, he continued to write, including two volumes of memoirs, until he was afflicted with an Alzheimer's
-like degenerative disease. He died following a bronchitis attack in 2006. His eldest son David Servan-Schreiber
died in July 2011 at the age of 50 of a brain tumor.
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
–7 November 2006, Fécamp
Fécamp
Fécamp is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:Fécamp is situated in the valley of the river Valmont, at the heart of the Pays de Caux, on the Albaster Coast...
) was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
. He co-founded L'Express
L'Express (France)
L'Express is a French weekly news magazine. When founded in 1953 during the First Indochina War, it was modelled on the US magazine TIME.-History:...
in 1953 with Françoise Giroud
Françoise Giroud
Françoise Giroud, born France Gourdji was a French journalist, screenwriter, writer and politician.-Biography:...
, and then went on to become president of the Radical Party in 1971. He oversaw its transition to the center-right, the party being thereafter known as Parti radical valoisien. He tried to found in 1972 the Reforming Movement
Reforming Movement
The Reforming Movement was a French centrist political group created in 1972 by the alliance between the Radical Party led by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber and the Christian-democratic Democratic Centre headed by Jean Lecanuet....
with Christian Democrat Jean Lecanuet
Jean Lecanuet
Jean Adrien François Lecanuet was a French centrist politician. He was born to a family of modest means, and gravitated towards literature during his studies. He received his diploma at the age of 22, becoming the youngest agrégé in France...
, with whom he supported Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
's conservative candidacy to the 1974 presidential election
French presidential election, 1974
Presidential elections were held in :France in 1974, following the death of President Georges Pompidou. They went to a second round, and were won by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing by a margin of 1.6%...
.
Formative years
Jean-Jacques Schreiber (his birth name) was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the eldest son of Emile Servan-Schreiber, journalist, who founded the financial newspaper Les Échos, and Denise Brésard. Three of his siblings are Brigitte Gros, former senator of Yvelines
Yvelines
Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.-History:Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application from 26 February 1965.It gained the...
and mayor of Meulan
Meulan
Meulan-en-Yvelines is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It hosted part of the sailing events for the 1900 Summer Olympics held in neighboring Paris, and would do so again twenty-four years later.-People:*Mbaye Niang footballer*Ibrahim Sacko...
, Christiane Collange, journalist, Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber, journalist.
Enjoying the full attention of his mother, JJSS was a highly gifted and hard-working child. He studied at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly and the Lycée de Grenoble, then returned to Paris. Beginning in adolescence, he accompanied his father to meetings with highly-placed people such as Raoul Dautry
Raoul Dautry
Raoul Dautry was a French engineer, business leader and politician. He was born on 16 September 1880 at Montluçon in the department of Allier; he died on 21 August 1951 at Lourmarin in the department of Vaucluse.- Education and career :...
, a cabinet-level officer under both Vichy
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
and liberated France. Accepted into the École polytechnique
École Polytechnique
The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...
, France's top engineering school, in 1943, he joined Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
's Free French Forces
Free French Forces
The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
with his father and went to Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
for training as a fighter pilot. However, he never entered combat.
After the liberation, he graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in 1947, but never worked as an engineer. That same year, he married journalist and author Madeleine Chapsal. Fascinated by science and politics, Servan-Schreiber now discovered a taste for writing and journalism. The brilliant 25-year-old was hired to write for the recently-founded daily newspaper Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
by its founder, Hubert Beuve-Méry
Hubert Beuve-Méry
Hubert Beuve-Méry founded Le Monde in 1944 at the behest of Charles de Gaulle. Following the liberation of France Beuve-Méry built Le Monde from the ruins of Le Temps using its offices, printing presses, masthead and those staff members who had not collaborated with the Germans.He retired his...
, as a foreign affairs editorialist. His deep acquaintance with the United States led him to specialize in the Cold War.
L'Express
Servan-Schreiber was among the first to recognize the inevitability of decolonizationDecolonization
Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...
, writing a series of articles on the Indo-Chinese conflict. This led to his meeting the future Prime Minister Pierre Mendès-France
Pierre Mendès-France
Pierre Mendès France was a French politician. He descended from a Portuguese Jewish family that moved to France in the sixteenth century.-Third Republic and World War II:...
, at that time a dedicated opponent of the French military effort in Indo-China. In 1953, Servan-Schreiber co-founded (with Françoise Giroud
Françoise Giroud
Françoise Giroud, born France Gourdji was a French journalist, screenwriter, writer and politician.-Biography:...
) the weekly L'Express
L'Express (France)
L'Express is a French weekly news magazine. When founded in 1953 during the First Indochina War, it was modelled on the US magazine TIME.-History:...
, initially published as a Saturday supplement to the family-owned newspaper Les Échos. On the magazine's open agenda was the elevation of Mendès-France to power. Due to government seizures and censorship, the magazine quickly enchanted both the youth and the most prominent intellectuals of the 1950s and '60s with its innovations. Among its contributors were Albert Camus
Albert Camus
Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
, Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
, André Malraux
André Malraux
André Malraux DSO was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine , which won the Prix Goncourt...
and François Mauriac
François Mauriac
François Mauriac was a French author; member of the Académie française ; laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature . He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur .-Biography:...
. During Mendès-France's pivotal eight-month term as Council President, JJSS served him as a shadow councilor.
Servan-Schreiber was conscripted to Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
in 1956 – to still his dissent, says Giroud. Drawing on his experiences there, he published his first book, "Lieutenant en Algérie". Its account of the brutality of French repression caused a controversy over its alleged deleterious effect on the army's morale. L'Express ran excerpts from the book.
Servan-Schreiber opposed General De Gaulle's return to power in 1958. However, De Gaulle was successful, and the influence of L'Express began to wane. In the same period, JJSS experienced other upsets. His family lost control of Les Échos; he split politically with Mendès-France; he divorced his first wife, and separated from Françoise Giroud, his mistress since the early 1950s, in order to marry Sabine Becq de Fouquières, who would become the mother of his four sons David
David Servan-Schreiber
David Servan-Schreiber was a French physician, neuroscientist and author. He was a clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine...
, Émile, Franklin, and Édouard.
In 1964, following a study which he commissioned from his brother Jean-Louis, JJSS transformed L'Express into a weekly news magazine patterned after TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
. L'Express soared in popularity once again. It broadened its coverage to such subjects as new technologies and women's liberation
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
. It became a mirror of the changing French society.
The American Challenge
As the 1960s unfolded, Servan-Schreiber found himself in the position of a rich press lord, a political editorialist always chasing after new ideas. His trenchant analysis drew some of the first minds of his generation to him. Growing more and more disenchanted with De Gaulle's policies, he was no longer willing to settle for an observer's role.He found a collaborator in Michel Albert
Michel Albert
Michel Albert is a French economist. He was born 25 February 1930 at Fontenay-le-Comte and is the Permanent Secretary of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques since 1 January 2005....
, who provided him with extensive documentation to inform his editorials. One of Albert's reports struck him particularly. It presented the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
as engaged in a silent economic war, in which Europe appeared to be completely outclassed on all fronts: management techniques, technological tools, and research capacity. Servan-Schreiber saw in this thesis the potential for a seminal book. He fleshed it out with reading keys and concrete proposals for a counter-offensive. The result was his international best-seller "Le Défi Américain" (The American Challenge, 1967). It sold 600,000 copies in France, unprecedented for a political essay, and was translated into 15 languages. This book was instrumental in creating a resurgence of French nationalism and drawing attention to the importance of transnational cooperation in Europe.
Building on the book's success, he traveled throughout Europe, speaking to packed lecture halls, touting the advantages of a federal Europe with a common currency and of a decentralized France.
Political career
General De Gaulle's resignation in 1969 persuaded Servan-Schreiber to try his hand at politics. In October 1969, he became secretary-general of the Radical Party. He helped to reform the party, writing its manifesto, and became its president in 1971. After the splitting away of the left-wing Radicals, who formed the Left Radical PartyLeft Radical Party
The Radical Party of the Left is a minor social-liberal, and in opposition to its common understanding of its name, a moderate centre-left political party in France advocating radicalism, secularism to its french extend known as laïcité, progressivism, pro-Europeanism, individual freedom and...
(PRG), Servan-Schreiber became the president of the center-right Parti radical valoisien. He was elected Deputy of Nancy in 1970, but, later on the same year, he made the surprise decision to run against Jacques Chaban-Delmas
Jacques Chaban-Delmas
Jacques Chaban-Delmas was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972. In addition, for almost half a century, he was Mayor of Bordeaux and a deputy for the Gironde département....
in Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
. He was soundly defeated, which tarnished his image. He served several terms or partial terms in the French National Assembly
French National Assembly
The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....
, and was Minister for Reform in 1974 but, being opposed to nuclear tests, he was prompted to resign after three weeks by Prime Minister Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
. He was elected in 1976 as President of the regional council of Lorraine
Lorraine (région)
Lorraine is one of the 27 régions of France. The administrative region has two cities of equal importance, Metz and Nancy. Metz is considered to be the official capital since that is where the regional parliament is situated...
, defeating Pierre Messmer
Pierre Messmer
Pierre Joseph Auguste Messmer was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Minister of Armies under Charles de Gaulle from 1960 to 1969 – the longest serving since Étienne François, duc de Choiseul under Louis XV – and then as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1972 to 1974...
.
During his political career, he frequently waged progressive campaigns against the current of a sociologically conservative France. He advocated decentralization through regionalization; reallocation of resources from the Concorde
Concorde
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...
program to the Airbus
Airbus
Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Blagnac, France, surburb of Toulouse, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....
; an end to nuclear testing
France and weapons of mass destruction
France is known to have an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. France is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; but is not known to possess or develop any chemical or biological weapons. France was the fourth country to test an independently...
; reform of the grandes écoles
Grandes écoles
The grandes écoles of France are higher education establishments outside the main framework of the French university system. The grandes écoles select students for admission based chiefly on national ranking in competitive written and oral exams...
; and computerization. He refused to cooperate with Georges Marchais
Georges Marchais
Georges René Louis Marchais was the head of the French Communist Party from 1972 to 1994, and a candidate in the French presidential elections of 1981 - in which he managed to garner only 15.34% of the vote, which was considered at the time a major setback for the party.-Early life:Born into a...
's Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
. He seemed unable to play political power games. His centrist strategy was never successful and eventually brought down his party.
Wanting to extricate himself from the daily management of L'Express, he sold it to financier Jimmy Goldsmith
James Goldsmith
Sir James Michael "Jimmy" Goldsmith was an Anglo-French billionaire financier and tycoon. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. In 1994, he was elected to represent France as a Member of the European Parliament and he subsequently founded the short-lived...
in 1977. Deprived of its power base, his political career quickly deteriorated. He lost his Assembly seat in 1978. He left the party in 1979 at the time of the first direct European elections
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
, to present a list of candidates under the slogan "Emploi, Égalité, Europe" (Employment, Equality, Europe) with Giroud. The list won only 1.84% of the votes, and Servan-Schreiber decided to retire from political life.
Behind-the-scenes participant
In 1980, Servan-Schreiber published his second best-seller, "Le Défi mondial" (The Global Challenge), devoted to the technological rise of JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
through computerization. He served once again as shadow councilor to his close acquaintances François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
; his friendship with the latter went back to the École Polytechnique. However, his initiative to create a center for the promotion of information technology in France turned into a money pit and closed down in 1984. He then moved to Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
where he had his four sons (David, Émile, Franklin and Édouard) educated at Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
, a leader in computer science. Servan-Schreiber directed the university's international relations.
Returning to France, he continued to write, including two volumes of memoirs, until he was afflicted with an Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
-like degenerative disease. He died following a bronchitis attack in 2006. His eldest son David Servan-Schreiber
David Servan-Schreiber
David Servan-Schreiber was a French physician, neuroscientist and author. He was a clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine...
died in July 2011 at the age of 50 of a brain tumor.