Published Thursday, July 27, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News

Alphonse G. Juilland, 77, Stanford linguistic expert, Department chairman, writer and top sprinter.

By Elise Banducci

    As a young boy in Europe, Alphonse Juilland had two ambitions. One was to appear in the French sports magazine L'Equipe. The other was to earn a contract with Gallimard, a prestigious European literary publisher.
    At age 72, the internationally recognized linguist and top senior sprinter saw both dreams come true.
    In 1994, L'Equipe featured him as a track star who was also a scholar. The same year, Gallimard published Mr. Juilland's ``Elizabeth and Louis,'' based on an exclusive interview with Elizabeth Craig, the muse of 20th-century French novelist Louis-Ferdinand Céline.
    ``All of the sudden, he became a celebrity all over Europe for discovering this woman,'' said William Gairdner, who studied with Mr. Juilland at Stanford.
    ``He was just thrilled. It underlined his lifelong belief in the whole person, that one's life should be well-rounded,'' Gairdner added.
    Mr. Juilland, retired chairman of Stanford University's department of French and Italian, died June 30 of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 77.
    He had spent a lifetime challenging himself physically and intellectually.

   Joined Stanford in 1961

    Born in Bucharest, Romania, and raised in the French-speaking portion of Switzerland, Mr. Juilland graduated magna cum laude from the University of Bucharest in 1945. In 1951, he earned his doctorate from the Sorbonne in Paris. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1961.
    Mr. Juilland, or ``the Prof'' as many students called him, published many books on linguistics, from the English verb to a dictionary of Romany, the Gypsy language.
    In the 1960s, he chaired a committee that established Stanford's linguistics department. He also was the founding editor of the Stanford French Review, Stanford Italian Review and Stanford Literature Review.
    In 1975 and 1988, he was decorated by the French government for his work promoting French culture and education in the United States.
A political philosopher and self-described conservative, Mr. Juilland was bemused to find himself among what he saw as a campus full of liberals.
    A Stanford news release announcing his memorial service said that Mr. Juilland ``took great pleasure in teasing other academics about their liberal faith in science and reason . . .''
    ``He was a witty man,'' said Rene Girard, professor emeritus of French and comparative literature at Stanford. ``He was very humorous about certain aspects of what we call political correctness in the university setting.''
    Mr. Juilland also founded the university's Conservative Forum, which brought conservative speakers to campus.
    ``He would bring people like Bill Buckley on campus at a time when students would have wanted to throw tomatoes at him,'' joked Marie-Jeanne Juilland-Johnson, his daughter.
    As a student at Stanford in the early 1980s, Juilland-Johnson was a feminist and lived in a co-op, but she said her father took her politics in stride.
    ``He was very tolerant and always encouraged me to express my views and take my stand.''
    But, she added: ``I married a conservative, though. He was happy about that.''
Old World qualities Colleagues and family say Mr. Juilland, with his gray hair and pipe, was every bit a professor from the old school. And his Old World qualities extended beyond the classroom.
    ``He always kissed ladies' hands,'' said his daughter. ``Women loved it because they never get treated like that.''
    Mr. Juilland began to pursue his athletic dreams in earnest in 1964 when he met Gairdner, a world-class runner who was training at Stanford.
    ``I wanted to get smart and he wanted to learn how to run, so we ended up in this interesting relationship where I was boss on the track and he was the boss in the classroom,'' said Gairdner, who earned a master's in linguistics under Mr. Juilland and a doctorate in English literature.
Mr. Juilland quit smoking, lost some extra weight and went on to set three world records in sprinting for men 50 and older.
    He also wrote several books on track and field after he retired from teaching in 1989.
    Up until his death, he continued to run, pursue his scholarship and look for new adventures.
    ``At 77, he wanted to learn the newest dance steps,'' said Juilland-Johnson. ``He taught us all how to live life to the fullest.''

Alphonse G. Juilland

Born: Oct. 5, 1922, in Bucharest, Romania.
Died: June 30, 2000, in a Palo Alto hospital.
Survived by: Daughter, Marie-Jeanne Juilland-Johnson of Redwood City; brothers, Jean Juilland of Laguna Niguel and Paul Juilland of Lima, Peru; one grandchild; and five nieces and nephews.
Services: Have been held.
Memorial: Contributions may be made to Pets in Need, 873 Fifth Ave., Redwood City, Calif. 94063.