Richard Descoings (; June 23, 1958 – April 3, 2012) was a French

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. He was serving as the Director of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (French: ''Institut d'études politiques de Paris'' or Sciences Po Paris), and as such as the Chief Administrator of the National Foundation of Political Science (''Fondation nationale des sciences politiques'', FNSP). These two entities are collectively referred to as Sciences Po (see

Use of Sciences Po , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university'' Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

), and are two of the most prestigious public policy research and teaching bodies in Europe. Descoings was also a senior member of the

Conseil d'État In France, the (; Council of State) is a governmental body that acts both as legal adviser to the executive branch and as the supreme court for administrative justice, which is one of the two branches of the French judiciary system. Establi ...

Early life

Descoings was born in Paris, where he graduated from the Institut d'études politiques ( Sciences Po) in 1980, and subsequently studied at the

École nationale d'administration The École nationale d'administration (generally referred to as ENA, en, National School of Administration) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the 1958 Constitution Michel Deb ...

from 1983 to 1985.

Career

From 1985 to 1989, he worked as an auditor in the legal section of the

and, in 1987, was appointed special advisor to Alain Lancelot, Director of the Institut d'études politiques de Paris. In 1989 he was appointed Deputy Director of the Institut d’études politiques de Paris, and remained in that post until 1991 when he was appointed Counsel ('' conseiller d'État'') of the Conseil d'État. From 1991 to 1993, he was successively technical advisor to the cabinet of the Minister for the Budget, with particular responsibility for monitoring the national education and higher education budget, and then special advisor to the Minister of National Education with responsibility for budgetary issues. From 1993 to 1996 he was appointed Deputy General Reporter on the report and studies section of the Conseil d'État and on the task force on the responsibilities and organization of the State. From 1995 to 1996, he worked as government commissioner for legal training at the Conseil d'État. He was appointed the chief figure at Sciences Po in 1996. For his service to the French Republic, Descoings was awarded Knight of the Order of Merit and Knight of the

Order of Academic Palms Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...

. He was also awarded Commander of the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian Order of Rio Branco and an honorary doctorates from Waseda University, Japan.

Death

On April 3, 2012, he was found dead in a Manhattan luxury hotel room. The circumstances surrounding his premature death and his dissolute lifestyle have generated rumours in the media, but it was determined that he died a natural death of "causes related to hypertension.""Sciences Po Director Died of Natural Causes" ''The Chronicle of Higher Education" May 30, 2012

/ref> Grave Richard Descoings Pernes-les-Fontaine cemetery 2015-09-22

Grave Richard Descoings Pernes-les-Fontaine cemetery 2015-09-22

He is buried at the cemetery of Pernes-les-Fontaines in southeastern France.

Bibliography

*Raphaëlle Bacqué, ''Richie'', Paris, Grasset, 2015

References

External links

Official weblog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Descoings, Richard 1958 births 2012 deaths Lycée Montaigne (Paris) alumni Lycée Henri-IV alumni Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni Sciences Po alumni École nationale d'administration alumni Civil servants from Paris Members of the Conseil d'État (France) Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite French LGBT people