Odile de La Beaujardiere
July 10, 1941-June 21, 2023
Golden, CO
Submitted by Susan Stansbury

Odile de La Beaujardière passed away peacefully in Arvada, Colorado on Wednesday, June 21st, a few weeks shy of her eighty-second birthday.

Odile was born during World War II in Poitiers, France to Julien and Lily Martelly. She was the second of five children.

In 1945, she and her family moved to Quito, Ecuador where her father taught physics for several years. She often spoke fondly of those formative years, and she retained her ability to speak Spanish throughout her life.

Odile met her future husband, Jean-Marie, at La Sorbonne in Paris, France. Her parents approved of the match immediately, and they were wed in 1962. Her parents’ instincts were correct: their marriage was a happy and devoted one for 61 years.

Odile did her dissertation work on the Crab Nebula at the University of Paris Observatoire de Meudon in France, and she emigrated with her young family to the US in 1968. Odile lived in Palo Alto from 1969 to 1994. She worked at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) in California for many years, studying the aurora borealis (northern lights) with radars at Stanford, Fairbanks, Tromsø, and Sondrestromfjord. She was a National Science Foundation program manager in Virginia for the Division of Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences and the Office of Polar Programs. She was later a Section Chief for the Air Force Research Labs at Hanscom AFB in Massachusetts followed by Kirtland AFB in New Mexico.

In addition to her distinguished career and time with family, her main activities were hosting enormous dinner parties and leading hikes. She was known for inviting to Thanksgiving all of the foreigners and people who didn't have a place to go. Her hikes were often grueling; the advice among friends and colleagues was that if Odile invited you on a hike, don’t go unless you were in robust shape and prepared to stagger back to the car after sunset.

Odile is survived by her husband Jean-Marie in Golden, Colorado, her sons Jean-François (Jeff) in Boulder, Colorado, Laurent (Larry) in Paris, France, and Cedric and his spouse Susan in Palo Alto, California; her sisters Béatrice, Isabelle, and Nicole and her brother Bernard who all reside in France; as well as her grandchildren Jean-Jacques (Jack), Tristan, Patrick, Claire, and Julien.