In Memoriam

We are sad to announce that Patrick Festy passed away on 8 December 2022.

Patrick was a member of the EAPS Council from 1991-1993.

Patrick Festy was the director of INED from 1995 to 1998. Under his leadership as editor-in-chief of the journal Population (1989–1995), Population embarked on its transformation into an international journal, both in terms of its authors and its readership.

Patrick Festy was a remarkable researcher. In the 1970s, when studies were focused on exploring the individual determinants of demographic behaviour, he turned his attention to the contextual factors of this behaviour, and more specifically, the effect of law on family behaviour. His study of divorce in Russia and young people’s transition to adulthood in Albania led him to examine the effect of social protection systems and private solidarity on living conditions. This new direction was best illustrated through two European projects on the care of future older adults, FELICIE and MAGGIE, which he coordinated in the 2000s with Joëlle Gaymu. Attentive to data quality and harmonization, he conducted research on the operating methods of major international fertility and family survey programmes, and then coordinated the evaluation of microdata from European censuses. More recently, he supervised the development of the contextual database of the European Generations and Gender programme.

All those who knew Patrick Festy also appreciated his sense of humour, his kindness, and his humility.