Eric Philippe Billard

Eric Philippe Billard died on Sunday, April 29th 2012 after a short illness. Eric was born on December 6, 1958, in Choisy-le-Roi, France, a suburb of Paris beribboned by the Seine. Cities would beckon to him all his life, and at the age of 18 he moved to Paris, where he became a mechanical draftsman at the Dassault, the French aviation company.   Eventually, he also became the beau of an American in Paris named Mary Ann Racin, and when she returned home to New York City a year later he flew there to be with her. He and Mary Ann lived in a top-floor apartment beneath the eaves of a church on West 57th Street. Once a week, Eric would cook dinner for the denizens of a small homeless shelter, a volunteer responsibility he felt profoundly. His love of good food, his faultlessly courteous manner, and his debonair accent led him to a series of positions at some of New York\"™s most celebrated French restaurants, including Maxim\"™s de Paris and Le Cirque. At one restaurant, the star chef haughtily refused to make sauces, so Eric would make them himself–superbly, if the restaurant\"™s Zagat review was any indication. (Years later, his daughters would be thoroughly unimpressed by Eric\"™s four-star sauces. He found this very funny).

Among other travels, Eric and Mary Ann spent two months years backpacking in Europe in 1988, and were married on June 26, 1993 in Virginia after which he returned to school at West Virginia University for his degree in engineering. During this time he and Mary Ann joyously welcomed the birth of their daughter Natasha. To the delight of the entire family, a second daughter, Audrey, was born four years later.   Eric found his greatest meaning in life as a father to his girls; he doted on them and would stop whatever he was doing to read stories, play board games, or make crepes for them.

At the age of 40, Eric embarked on a new career, in a foreign language, in a new town–Lynchburg, Virginia. He became a mechanical engineer, a challenge he loved. To friends who visited him at his office he would show the sleek, impeccable nuclear components he had helped to design. Eric was employed as a design engineer by two local companies, Areva and Novatech and, most recently, by Energy Solutions in Columbia Maryland. He found Lynchburg, his adopted hometown, mesmerizingly lovely in the spring and fall, but he always considered himself \"an urban guy,\" as he once said–a citizen of the world.

He is survived by his beloved wife, Mary Ann Racin, and adored daughters Natasha Berry Billard and Audrey Angelena Billard, all of Lynchburg; by his parents, Claudette and Robert Billard, of Rosny-sous-Bois, France; by his sister Brigitte Laurence Billard, of Courbevoie, France; and by nieces and nephews in California, New York, Washington, DC, West Virginia, and France.

In lieu of flowers, contributions to a memorial fund may be sent to St. Paul\"™s Episcopal Church, 605 Clay St, Lynchburg, VA 24504; checks should be payable to St. Paul\"™s Church, with Billard on the memo line.

A memorial service will be held at 10am on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at St. Paul\"™s Episcopal Church on 605 Clay Street, Lynchburg, VA 24054.

Tharp Funeral Home & Crematory, Lynchburg, is assisting the family.