URBANA – Herbert C. De Ley Jr. of Urbana passed away at 4:50 p.m. Saturday (July 24, 2010) at Provena Covenant Medical Center, Urbana.
The visitation was held from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, July 26, at Renner-Wikoff Funeral Home, 1900 S. Philo Road, Urbana.
The funeral will be at 10 a.m. today (Tuesday) at the funeral home. The Rev. Steve Shoemaker will officiate. Burial services will follow in Woodlawn Cemetery.
He is survived by his wife, Pamela De Ley; his son, Balthazar De Ley; his sister, Suzette MacSkimming; and his stepchildren, Erica Hughes and Patrick Morrow. He was preceded in death by his parents.
Herbert was born in Altadena, Calif., on Nov. 24, 1936, to Herbert C. De Ley Sr. and Lillian Stone De Ley. He went to the Altadena P.S., Eliot Jr. High School, and to Pasadena City College for his high school, where he was a distinguished gymnast on the side horse.
He received his bachelor's degree from U.C.L.A., where he joined the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and lettered in gymnastics. His junior year was spent abroad studying French Literature and he became fluent in French at the Sorbonne in Paris. He did his graduate work at Yale University where he earned his doctorate degree in French Literature. He was a copy boy at a local newspaper in Los Angeles with his lifelong friend, Stuart Toy.
He taught at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., from 1961-1962, during which time he married Margo Corona.
He then began his career at the University of Illinois teaching French Literature for over 40 years.
During his distinguished career at the UI, he published five books on Proust and the Memoires of Saint-Simon, as well as La Fontaine. These include Fixing Up Reality, La Fontaine and Levi-Strauss, Le jeu classique. Jeu et théorie des jeux au Grand Siècle, Saint-Simon Memorialist, The Movement of Thought, and Marcel Proust et le duc de Saint-Simon.
In 1990, he married Pamela Donze-Morrow, having many beautiful years together, both in Urbana and in Europe.
Herb was honored by the French government in 1992 with the Palmes Academiques. This was an honor he treasured dearly.
Herb loved to travel, taking every opportunity to live, study and write in France. He became an avid cyclist in the 1970s, taking numerous trips across France with his family. He was a lifelong music lover, and appreciated music from Debussy to alternative rock, most specially his son Balthazar's music. He also loved to cook and entertain friends, family, students and colleagues, hosting many cocktail and dinner parties.
He will always be remembered for his catching smile, his brilliant mind and his giving heart.
Condolences may be offered at www.renner-wikoffchapel.com.
