Patrice Higonnet

Patrice Louis René Higonnet (born 3 February 1938) is a French author, historian, and retired professor who currently serves as a Robert Walton Goelet Research Professor of French History at Harvard University. He previously taught European history.

Life Patrice Louis René Higonnet was born on 3 February 1938 in Saint-Cloud, France, to René Alphonse Higonnet and Thérèse Higonnet ( David).

His first marriage was to Janet Marian King on 26 May 1958 in Manchester, New Hampshire. They had two children before divorcing: Anne and Philip.

His second marriage was to Ethel Parmele Cardwell (1943–1973), whom he married at Harvard on 3 June 1970. She was raped and murdered in Longfellow Park in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1973.

Higonnet subsequently married Ethel's sister, University of Connecticut professor Margaret Higonnet ( Cardwell), on 13 August 1974. They had a daughter named Ethel.

Both Ethel and Margaret possess strong North American roots, descending from Alexander Scott Bullitt, Benjamin Logan, St. George Tucker, and William Logan. Their 3rd great-uncles were Congressmen Alexander Keith Marshall, Thomas Francis Marshall, and Edward C. Marshall. Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln were close cousins.