Ambassador Craig Roberts Stapleton, Médaille d’Or de la Renaissance Française

Craig Roberts Stapleton served as United States Ambassador to France from 2005 to 2009. Previously, he served as Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2001 to 2004.

Ambassador Stapleton is currently serving as a trustee of the George W. Bush Library and Foundation and the 9/11 Memorial Foundation. He has served on the Visiting Committee for Harvard College and the Committee on University Resources and Athletics.

He serves as a senior advisor to Stone Point Capital in Greenwich, Connecticut, and is lead director on the board of Abercrombie and Fitch. He was a partner of George W. Bush in the ownership of the Texas Rangers baseball team from 1989-1998. In July 2009, he joined in the ownership of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Ambassador Stapleton is president of the Vaclav Havel Foundation in the United States. He was awarded the Jan Masaryk Medal for service to the Czech Republic. He served on the board of the Peace Corps under President George H. W. Bush.

He has been a strong supporter of the Sister Cities programs and has been named an honorary citizen of the French towns Deauville, Chateauneuf du Pape, Rocamadour, and Vienne. He also recently published a book entitled Where Liberty Dwells, There is My Country, a history of twentieth-century American ambassadors to France. In May 2009, President Nicolas Sarkozy named Ambassador Stapleton a Commandeur of the Legion of Honor – France’s highest recognition.

Albert Valdman, Ph.D., Médaille d’Or du Mérite Francophone

Albert Valdman is Rudy Professor Emeritus at Indiana University, where he chaired the Department of French & Italian and Linguistics and established the Creole Institute, the only center in the United States which specializes in research and training in the area of applied linguistics with a focus on French-based creoles. He earned his Ph.D. at Cornell University and was granted an honorary doctorate from the University of Neuchâtel. He served as president of the International Association of Applied Linguistics and as president of the American Association of Teachers of French. He is now on the Comité International des études Créoles and on the scientific network “étude du français en francophonie” of the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie.

Dr. Valdman first authored two pioneering basic resources published in France: Le créole: structure, statut et origine (1978) and Le français hors de France (1979). He then was at the forefront of studies of North American varieties of French, developing course and reference materials through the Creole Institute. He has written some 200 articles for journals and written or edited several books, including A Dictionary of Louisiana Creole (1998), the Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary (2007), and the very first Dictionary of Louisiana French As Spoken in Cajun, Creole, and American Indian Communities (2009). He also co-authored a college French program, Chez nous: branché sur le monde francophone, now in its fourth edition. He is the founder and editor of the journal Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

Dr. Valdman has been a member and served as officer of several national and international professional associations and organized several conferences and conventions. In recognition of his work, the French Government has named him Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques and he was received into the Ordre des francophones d’Amérique by the Conseil supérieur de la langue française in Quebec.

Christopher P. Pinet, Ph.D., La Médaille d’Or du Mérite Francophone

Christopher P. Pinet is Professor Emeritus of French at Montana State University, Bozeman. He earned his B.A. with Honors and Distinction at the University of Kansas and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Brown University, where he was an NDEA and Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellow. Chris Pinet served on the Executive Council of the American Association of Teachers of French and the Board of Directors of the Federation of Alliances, U.S.A., Inc. He was recently made an Honorary Member of the AATF.

A specialist in French literature, Dr. Pinet has presented over 90 papers, workshops, and roundtables throughout the United States and Europe. As Editor in Chief of the French Review, Dr. Pinet conceived and edited special issues on Paris, Québec and Francophone Canada, Martinique and Guadeloupe, the Francophone World (including Vietnam, Sub- Saharan Africa, the Maghreb and France, the Antilles and Vietnam), Francophone cinemas, Francophonie in the United States (including the Northeast, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Kansas), French-speaking Belgium, and Algérie/France. Finally, Dr. Pinet wrote 71 editorials on a wide range of issues concerning francophonie.

In recognition of his work in promoting language and Francophone culture, the French Government named him Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 2010. Patrice Servantie, then vice-consul general of the French Consulate in San Francisco, said of Dr. Pinet: “Throughout your life you have nurtured a profound family connection with France...You have made a wonderful and effective contribution to our country with your real ability to understand its culture and history.” Dr. Pinet’s Great Uncle Eli fought as a doughboy in the Battle of the Somme in World War 1, and his father, Frank Samuel, participated in D-Day off Omaha Beach. His cousin, Jean Tallet, was a member of the French Resistance in Limoges.