Julian And Jane Archer

Julian Archer (scroll down for Jane Archer, nee Jane Whitehead Gochenour)

Julian Pratt Waterman Archer, age 84, passed from this world on November 23, 2023, one week shy of his 85th birthday. He succumbed to his 30+ year battle with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Julian lived a life full of adventure, pouring his passion into family, teaching, travel, history, food, wine, and sailing. He loved telling stories, debating, and long discussions of history and politics, frequently with Socratic Method questioning. His knowledge of history to any topic at hand seemed endless. The saying, “when someone dies, a library burns to the ground” certainly applies to Julian. 

Julian, son of Evangeline Pratt and Julian Seseel Waterman, was born November 30, 1938 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. 

When Julian was four, his father died suddenly of a ruptured hernia. Several years later, his mother married Laird William Archer, who was the Director of the Near East Foundation, and the family moved to Athens, Greece. Laird adopted Julian and raised him as his son. Enroute to Greece, the family passed through New York City, where Julian saw his first Broadway show - Roger and Hammerstein’s Brigadoon which was in his own words, “an experience beyond anything I could imagine”, dined at New York’s Town Hall Club (the most formal event he had ever attended), sailed across the Atlantic on the Vulcania to Naples where he first laid eyes on the ruins of Pompeii and then on to Greece. Here is what Julian said about this arrival. 

“This was December 1947 and Greece still bore the scars of World War II. The Vulcania docked in Piraeus and we looked out on acres and acres of rubble from the bombing of the port. The only restoration was of the customs house. In Athens itself the letter “V” (for Allied victory) was on walls, left there when members of the underground painted it during the German occupation. I can see now that the five years I lived in Greece were the most formative time for me. It gave me a sense of the larger world and of historical depths.”

Julian lived in Greece for the next five years, from ages 8-13. So it was that a boy from Northwest Arkansas got to see the world, and began a lifelong love of travel, culture, history and adventure. Julian loved reminiscing about his exciting boyhood in Athens. Though his parents enrolled him in the British Army School, he learned Greek from his neighborhood friends and the Greeks he came into contact with. Just a sample of the stories he shared include being late for school one day because he stopped to watch one of the civil war battles on a ridge in the distance; finding live ordinance in his backyard; trying his hand at selling vegetables door to door in his neighborhood; buying Greek antiquities by bartering his mother’s cigarettes; and  motoring to an island in a small wooden boat in quite choppy water (“Mom! This is better than a roller coaster!”)

The Archer family  returned to Fayetteville in 1952, and Julian completed his high school education at Principia School in St. Louis, and Bachelors Degree at the University of Arkansas in 1960.  

As was customary at the time, Julian enrolled in ROTC in college. Eventually, his Army commission as a Second Lieutenant stationed him in Stuttgart. There he met his future wife, Jane Gochenour who was taking a fall break from art studies in Paris to visit her parents in Stuttgart. As he liked to recount, he was descending the stairs to the Officer’s Club on the evening of the first day he arrived in Stuttgart when he saw a striking young woman dancing with another guy. As it turned out, Jane was dancing with her brother, and both excellent dancers. Julian boldly asked Jane to dance, despite his familiarity with only one dance, the Arkansas Push. He charmed her with his passion for history, adventure, and travel; and courted her with chocolates, skiing trips, and jaunts to France and Spain. They were married in Stuttgart on June 15, 1962. After finishing his tour of duty, Julian and Jane returned stateside where Julian received his masters in history at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Then he tried to honor his late father by pursuing a law degree at Waterman Law School at the University of Arkansas. He completed one year and determined his true passion was history so they moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he completed his PhD in history. In 1968 he accepted a teaching position at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. During this time Julian and Jane had three children: Jane (Janie), Elisabeth (Liffy), and Laird. 

Julian fell in love with France as a boy, which led to his academic career specializing in French social and labor history. In 1966 Julian received a fellowship and moved his young family to Le Vesinet, France for a year. In 1972 they returned to France on sabbatical. Jane and Julian decided to purchase an apartment in Paris, which became a lifelong home-base for their travels. The apartment, near La Bastille, on the Rue du Faubourg St. Antoine, the site of Madame DeFarge’s wine shop in Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities”, was and still is to this day, an area notorious for protests and labor unrest. This pleased Julian so much to have a place in an area so central to his field of study. The focus of Julian’s PhD was labor history and in 1997 he published “The First International in France, 1864-1872: Its Origins, Theories, and Impact”.

Julian was a history professor at Drake University for 42 years, from 1968-2010. Teaching allowed him to share his passion and experience of history and other cultures, and to inspire young people. Academia also allowed him to pursue his wanderlust during school breaks and sabbatical years. He taught modern French history, ancient Greek history, Roman history, and Western Civilization. At Drake University, Julian also served as the advisor for the Marshall and Truman Scholarships. In 1985 he was named Outstanding Teacher in the Humanities and in 2000 he was named Mentor of the Year. 

Julian and Jane traveled widely, refusing to be limited by others’ perceptions of what was possible or safe. They drove all over Europe and Mexico in their VW bus with their three children and cat in tow, camping in fields and along the side of the road. In 1978 they founded Lucullan Travels which offered upscale gastronomic, wine tasting, history, and bicycle tours of France, England, Mexico, and Italy; for the next twenty years they organized and guided these tours. Their travel experience, their personal relationships, appreciation of incredible places to stay, visit, and eat, combined with Julian's deep knowledge of history, and Jane’s understanding of cuisine made these tours unforgettable. They would plan tours a year in advance by visiting and lining up stops at chateaux and other places of historical interest, wineries, restaurants, cheese producers, renovated chateaux and unique hotels for lodging—a passionate endeavor long predating the internet. 

Julian’s connection to France ran deep. He served as the Honorary Consul of France for the State of Iowa from 1984 to 2004. He was awarded Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 1985, given to people in recognition of their contribution to French national education and culture, and he was named Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite in 2005. In addition he was a Chevalier de la Confrérie de Tastevin in recognition of his knowledge of Burgundy and its wine. He was the founder and first President of the Alliance Française of Central Iowa, 1994-1996

He was active as a community and civic leader throughout his life. Julian was founder of the Owl’s Head Historic District and one of the founders and first commissioners of the Des Moines Historic District Commision (1983-1988); President of the Des Moines Youth Symphony, 1977-1980; Des Moines Committee Foreign Relations, 1980-1995; Commander of Des Moines Power Squadron, 1987-1988; Bucksbaum Lecture Committee from 1996-2023.

After retiring from Drake University, Julian and Jane threw their energies into the creation of Pratt Place Inn and Barn, which converted the Pratt/Waterman family property in Fayetteville Arkansas into a luxury hotel and event venue. It received numerous accolades and ratings, placing it among the top establishments in the United States.

Julian was also enthusiastic about sailing and captained family sailing trips in Greece, France,  the Caribbean, Belize, and the Puget Sound. Characteristically determined and energetic even in his last years, Julian fulfilled a lifelong dream of owning a sailing boat by purchasing and outfitting a 44’ sailboat. He named it Orcastrate, after Orcas Island but also as a nod to so many things he made happen in his life, including a sail on his very own boat last June.

He never met a mountain he didn’t want to get to the top of. He climbed the Matterhorn and Mount Rainier in his younger days. Recently while sitting on the patio of the Jackson Lake Lodge watching the sun go down behind the Teton Mountains, he said to his daughter Janie, “Don’t you just want to climb to the top of those mountains?” That pretty much sums up his philosophy of life. Climb to the top so he could see everything, to put everything in perspective, for the adventure, for the spectacle, for the beauty; so he wouldn’t miss out on anything. 

Julian is survived by his three children: Jane L. Archer (Chicago), Elisabeth W. Archer (Seattle), and Laird F.W. Archer (Des Moines); and four grandchildren. Julian’s passing was preceded by Jane, his wife of 61 years, less than 1 month before his own.

He is dearly missed.

https://prabook.com/web/julian_pratt_waterman.archer/434976

Jane Archer

JANE WHITEHEAD GOCHENOUR ARCHER 

JULY 20, 1939-OCTOBER 26, 2023

Jane Gochenour Archer, age 84, passed from this world on October 26, 2023. She spent the last months of her life in a place that she loved and under the dedicated and loving care of the staff at the memory care facility, Cielito Lindo, in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Jane Whitehead Gochenour, daughter of Gladys May Gochenour and John Chapman Gochenour, was born July 20, 1939, in Charlottesville, VA. As a self-described “army brat” she grew up in San Francisco, New Orleans, Richmond, Morioka (Japan), Baltimore, Salzburg (Austria) and Stuttgart (Germany). She graduated from Stuttgart High School in 1957 and returned to the United States to attend Westhampton College, the women’s branch of the University of Richmond, where she graduated with an English major in 1961.

After college she went to France to study art at the Academie de la Grand Chaumière under Yves Breyer. While in Paris she would visit her parents in Stuttgart and on one of these visits she met a newly arrived Second Lieutenant, Julian Pratt Waterman Archer. They started courting with skiing trips and jaunts to France and Spain. They were married in Stuttgart on June 15, 1962. Shortly thereafter they returned stateside and eventually settled in Des Moines, Iowa in 1968 where Julian took a teaching position in history at Drake University. During this time Jane gave birth to three children, Janie, Elisabeth, and Laird. 

Jane put down roots in Des Moines, in the city and home which became her treasured base. Passionate about food and entertaining, Jane was hired by The Des Moines Register as their first restaurant critic. She was up for any adventure even when it pushed her beyond her comfort level. She and Julian had a wanderlust and adventured widely, refusing to be limited by others perceptions of what was possible or safe. They traveled all over Europe and Mexico in their VW bus, with their three children in tow. They would camp in fields and eat on the local economy. Jane had a keen eye for the beauty of local design and handicrafts. Many of the furnishings in their home were designed by her and then created abroad. They would pick them up in the VW and drive a packed VW back to Des Moines. Jane was a provocative conversationalist who enjoyed the shock value of smoking cigars with the men or making an unlikely comment. She didn’t suffer fools but also had a soft spot for people in need and nurturing injured animals. She led a life of possibility, curiosity and dynamism. 

In 1978 she and Julian founded Lucullan Travels which offered upscale bicycle, gastronomic, and history tours of France, England, Italy and Mexico; and for the next twenty years they organized and guided these tours. Their travel experience, the personal relationships they established, appreciation of incredible places to stay, visit and eat, and Julian's deep knowledge of history, made these tours an incredibly personal and beautiful experience. 

Because of her profound knowledge and love of French gastronomy and wine she was inducted into the Entonneurs Rabelaisiens of Chinon and made a Dame de la Jurade de St. Emilion, both French wine fraternities, and became a member of the Ambassade du Vin de Beaune.

Jane served as secretary of the Des Moines branch of the NAACP for five years. She was also active in and held various offices in Planned Parenthood of Iowa, the National Society of Colonial Dames in Iowa and the Proteus Club of Des Moines. 

The accomplishment of which she was most proud was the creation of Pratt Place Inn and Barn, which converted the Pratt Waterman Archer family property in Fayetteville Arkansas into a luxury hotel and event venue. She threw all of her decorating talent into it and it received numerous accolades and ratings putting it among the top establishments in the United States.

Jane is survived by her three children: Jane L. Archer (Chicago), Elisabeth W. Archer (Seattle), and Laird F.W. Archer (San Francisco); and four grandchildren. There will be no memorial service, but if you want to do something in her memory, kindly plant a tree or a flowering shrub. Her ashes will be scattered around Paris, a city she loved.