René POURRIAS

RenéPOURRIAS, born in Angers on April 21, 1918, had a Baccalauréat in literature and a Certificate in general mathematics when he joined the École in October 1949. He remained Director of Studies until July 1967. Francis PICHARD (class of 1954) remembers Abbé POURRIAS fondly: " Through his influence, he gave real credibility to ESSCA. The Director, Monsieur COCARD (1952/67), and he formed a real team, a tandem. "

This was indeed the opinion of the head of the School, who paid him a heartfelt tribute in a speech delivered to the UCO authorities to celebrate his five years as Director: " The School has come through some very difficult times (. . thanks (...) to the excellent and friendly collaboration I found with Abbé POURRIAS ".

Francis PICHARD also recalls that the latter " had inaugurated a highly innovative course entitled 'Morality in Business', which we would now call ethics . "

For Jacqueline COUPIN (class of 1962) " he was an intelligent Director, severe but fair . "

"L'Abbé" or "Poupou", as several generations of graduating classes affectionately called him, was a coach, certainly a leader of men, but above all a catalyst, and in this respect a true pedagogue. His aim was to bring out the best in everyone. He constantly tried to put students in a position to demonstrate to themselves and to others what they were capable of. The Gaston BERGER class (1962/65) shares this analysis: " He led us to discover unsuspected riches within ourselves. "

A promoter of personal fulfillment through teamwork, he knew how to set up concrete projects whose tangible success was an undeniable initiation for future graduates.

To this end, he created the " RYTHME " magazine, whose content he largely supervised, developing the themes and personally contributing numerous articles to each issue. The promo Jacques CARTIER (1956/59) expressed its gratitude to him in the first issue of 1959: "It would be an understatement to say that without him, this magazine would never have seen the light of day . The structure and rhythm of (this publication) are to some extent his work, and we owe him much more: it's to his presence, to his many suggestions as to subject and form, that we owe the fact that we have tried, continued and succeeded (...)".

With his complex temperament, Abbé POURRIAS enjoyed combining the two seemingly irreconcilable dimensions oftradition and innovation.

His action was certainly aimed at restoring the primacy of man in a system that tended to escape him: "Man is the center and supreme value in this temporal world that he wants to serve him.Man so well scrutinized, analyzed, boned in his biological, psychological or social depths, and yet so mysterious and baffling for the most learned (...). "

But he was also aninquisitive and pragmatic mind, keen to look ahead and adapt to the latest techniques and scientific advances. The Class of La Pérouse (1959/60) can testify to this: " Our Director of Studies is a pedagogue with a passion for active methods. He brings in consultants from major Parisian firms for days of group work, devoted to company organization and the study of concrete cases... We work up a sweat writing flow diagrams for documents, we embark on a vast survey on the future of Greater Angers, we learn about punch-card computing.For us, the future has a name: IBM 1401!

As a testament to the attachment he had aroused, on his departure, the students pledged to give him... a car!