Born on October 1st, 1921, the author died on July 21, 2016. The mathematical community lost one of its most remarkable members. He taught at the University of Nancy from 1946 to 1955 and then at the Paris Faculty of Science (now Paris-VII-Diderot, where he helped establish the mathematics department) until his retirement in 1990, and was renowned for his exceptional talent for teaching. His many books, distinguished by their rigor and clarity, will endure, including Topologie algébrique et théorie des faisceaux, Introduction à la théorie des groupes de Lie, and Analyse mathématique. From the 1950s onward, Roger Godement also played an active role in the Bourbaki group.
No one will forget this fierce antimilitarist's outspoken opposition to wars in Indochina, Algeria, and Vietnam. As he put it, he preferred "to accept money from our Parisian pimps rather than work for the arms industry". For a logic exercise during the Algerian War, he asked students to compare a statement by General Salan with a Times article on the Battle of Algiers, asking "Are these assertions logically compatible?" He also had students verify the properties of addition using figures for spending on the Indochina War.
Roger Godement remained an exceptional mathematician and an unconventional figure to the very end. Most of the important documents about him can be found on his website, created by his family and friends as a gift for his 90th birthday.
