Obituary of Claude Guilbaud

Claude Guilbaud, passed away at the age of 91 in Virginia Beach, Virginia on Wednesday, the 31st of December 2014. The day he rejoined his wife, Irene Bellande Guilbaud, who went up to glory seven years earlier. Claude first saw the light of day in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on the 17th of September 1923 - one of five children born to Leon Guilbaud and Marie Cadiou. He is survived by his son, Jean-Claude Guilbaud and his wife Matilde, his daughter Elisabeth Guilbaud-Cox and her husband Jason Cox, his grandsons, Fernando, Kristoff and Jean-Paul, his granddaughter, Alexandra Nara-Sumner, his great grandchildren, Julianna, Tatiana, Carissa, Gabriella, Isabella and Julian, his brothers Raymond and Gerard, his sister Solange, and 11 nieces and nephews. In 1964 at the age of 41, with the encouragement of his wife, and a suitcase full of dreams, he found his way to America. He also took with him the four basic tenets by which he lived his life: principle ("… il faut avoir des principles", he would say), hard work, integrity and devotion to family - his family. He taught his children these lessons well and in the only proven method: by example. After a few years at Ford Motor Company, like any good Haitian immigrant, he took on another job at a plastics factory to supplement his income and fulfill his dream and that of his wife, that their two children would be professionals armed with university degrees. When his English got better, he found a job at the Greenwich Village branch of Chemical Bank in Manhattan, and he retired from there at the age of 67. Claude Guilbaud embodied the true meaning of sacrifice, and the lives of his wife and his children were made easier and better because of the sacrifices he made. Their energy, their values and their legacy live on in their children, their grandchildren and their great grandchildren. Decades from now, their descendants or 'progeniture' will call their name and thank them for the solid foundation they laid.