Erick Moreau

Erick’s commitment to education and culture cannot be understood without going back to the tragic circumstances of his childhood. 

Erick and his brother Gilles were placed in a boarding school. To overcome this brutal separation from his family, Erick read, drew and learned history. He met there a history teacher who helped him develop his many talents.

During this period of his life, he became aware of his resilience and began to help other residential children, often orphans or from divorced parents, who could not overcome their sadness.

Since then, he has never stopped providing help to children in educational difficulty, and it is therefore quite natural that he wanted to get involved with the Lycee Français de San Francisco to perpetuate this institution of French culture in California.

He also supported the arts and invested himself in supporting the Artworks Downtown initiative in San Rafael.

Another important facet of Erick's personality is his adaptability and strength of character. He was born in Morocco in 1956. In the context of the North african war for decolonization, his family had to take refuge in France and Erick had to resettle its existence in a country he did not know (...and did not care for initially). 

After the death of his father, and later of his step father a few years later, he chose to follow his heart and love, an American girl whom he married when he was only 18 years old. 

This is how he came to live in the Bay area, his father-in-law being a professor in Berkeley. 

Working as a diver and then a cook in a restaurant, he financed his studies at Berkeley University to become an architect. He moved to San Rafael and founded his practice there.

A polyglot, lover of life and curious about everything, he always considered migration as a great opportunity. When he was very young, he had an admiration for the United States, a nation of adventurers and entrepreneurs, and the American creativity and positive attitude.

It’s in that country that resembled him so much that he chose to settle down and build a family. But he always kept strong links with the French culture, and especially a pronounced taste for discussion, conviviality and a vivid attachment to the Greco-Roman roots of that civilization. 

That’s the reason why the Lycee Français de San Francisco meant so much for him as it represented for him a bridge between the Old world values and the incredible pool of talents and creativity that is California.