Felix Yves Dupont, 1931 -2013

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Felix Yves Dupont
Felix Yves Dupont

Felix Yves Dupont passed away peacefully in the company of his children in the early morning hours of Tuesday, October 8, 2013, in his room at Mountainside Senior Living in Crozet, Virginia. He was 81 years old.

Felix was born in Breteuil-sur-Iton, a small city in Normandy, France, on November 6, 1931, to Félix André Dupont and Jeanne Yvonne Déloffre. He was raised with his younger sister, Andrée Pierrette, and a younger brother, Jean-Claude, who died in childhood. His father, a veteran of both world wars, was a partner in a substantial lumber and millwork factory that was taken over along with the family home during the Nazi occupation of France.

After graduating from boarding schools in Évreux and Paris, Felix went on to earn a degree in mechanical and electrical engineering from École Centrale in 1955. Later that year, while traveling to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, he met his first wife, Ismeine Hellen Chiotinos of Nashua, New Hampshire. In the fall of 1956, they returned to France so that Felix could fulfill his required military service as an officer in the Algerian campaign. They were married in Grenoble in April 1958.

Following a brief period of employment with Ateliers de Sécheron in Geneva, Switzerland, Felix was recruited by General Electric in 1960 to work as an engineer in its Large Steam Turbine Generator division in Schenectady, New York. They gave birth to a son, Christian Yves, in July 1963. During his employment with GE, Felix pursued doctoral studies in engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in nearby Troy. Though he did not complete his degree, he was awarded a patent with two GE colleagues for developing a technique to improve the insulation of power generator conductors.

In 1968, Felix joined the newly founded General Electric Information Services Company as a sales and marketing manager. As GEISCO grew, he relocated with his family to Massachusetts and then to New Jersey, where in 1973 he sadly lost Ismeine to cancer.

Felix transferred to GEISCO’s Rockville, Maryland office in 1976 after meeting fellow GE employee Jyl Antonia Archer Gill. They were married on Valentine’s Day in 1977 and welcomed a daughter, Katherine Yvonne Thérèse, in November of that year. Together they raised their blended family, which included Christian, Jyl’s two children from her previous marriage, Patricia Deon Gill and Vernon Joseph Gill, and Katherine.

Felix retired from GEIS, as it had come to be called, in 1996. He and Jyl separated two years later and divorced in 2008. Nevertheless, they continued to remain close as friends and as family. After living in Germantown and later Silver Spring, Maryland, Felix moved to Central Virginia in 2010 to be closer to Christian and his family. During his final years, Felix had begun to suffer from late-onset diabetes and related ailments that ultimately led to his passing. In accordance with his wishes, Felix’s body was cremated and his loss was mourned by family members in a private ceremony.

Expressions of condolence may be submitted online at memorialwebsites.legacy.com/felixdupont or sent to: Christian Dupont, 830 Summit View Lane, Charlottesville, VA  22903.

Charitable donations to Mountainside Senior Living in Felix’s memory may be made at the website above or by calling Mountainside at 823-4307.