Lucien L. Loiseau

Lucien L. Loiseau October 31, 1932 – July 2, 2020

Lucien was born on October 31, 1932 on the French Caribbean island of Martinique in a town called François to his parents, father - Nicolas Loiseau (nick named “Daddy François” after their hometown) and mother - Marie-Anne Pascal Lagier Loiseau. In 1949 at the age of 17 he accepted the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) message and he became one of the founding members of the very first SDA church on the island of Martinique. A year later, he became an Evangelist and a Call-porter (title used in Adventist circles for someone selling religions books and Bibles door-to-door).

In 1954, he left Martinique and traveled to the island of Guadeloupe at the age of 22 where he continued his Evangelism work as a Call-porter. In 1959, he moved to the island of Trinidad and attended Caribbean Union College, where he received an Associate’s degree in 1963. After receiving his degree, he continued his travels to various Caribbean islands, spreading the word of God, when he met his soulmate, best friend, and love of his life on the island of St. Martin, Mariette Armande Hunt. He moved to French Canada to continue his work as a Call-porter and she moved to New York, but they continued to correspond. They eventually got married in Canada on October 9, 1965. A few years later, they had one daughter, Linda Marie Loiseau Foxworth. This October, Mariette and Lucien would have celebrated 55 years of marriage.

The family moved to the United States where Lucien finished up his studies and received a Bachelor’s degree from Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster Massachusetts in 1968, with a major in Religion and a minor in History. The family moved to Washington where Lucien attended Walla Walla College and received a provisional teaching certificate in 1969. It was at this time that they met their close friends to this day, the Schafer family. The Loiseau family relocated again to Oregon, where Lucien attended Portland State University and received a Master of Arts in Teaching Secondary education in 1972. It was also at this time when they joined the Sharon SDA church. Lucien served as a Bible worker, Sabbath School Teacher, Choir Member and Elder.

One of his proudest accomplishments in the SDA church was organizing the “Concerns Group” in the 1970’s who fought for social justice and equal rights within the church to assure that Black teachers and administrators were included in Adventist Schools and in our Conferences and Unions. The Concerns Group was so influential that they had high ranking officials from the General Conference of SDA and the North American Division of SDA come to Oregon to discuss their issues. As a result of their efforts, the first Black teacher was hired at Portland Adventist Elementary School, and a permanent position was created at the North Pacific Union Conference (NPUC) in the Office of Regional Affairs. At regional convocation on May 14, 2011, he and the members of the Concerns Group were honored with a Recognition Award, to honor their great sacrifice for the establishment of the Regional Affairs Office at the NPUC, and for their forward thinking and leadership.

Lucien was often nominated to serve on several committees of the Oregon Conference of SDA, Adventist School Boards and the NPUC because of his extensive knowledge of parliamentary procedure. “Parliamentary procedure is the body of rules, ethics and customs governing meetings and other operations of clubs, organizations, legislative bodies and other deliberative assemblies.” (Wikipedia definition). He would often be seen and heard raising his hand and saying “Mr. Chairman, point of order” if the committee was out of policy or if they were just not following regulations.

Lucien was also an active member of the Black United Front in the 80’s and 90’s and was always at the forefront of fighting for the rights of Blacks in the community and often helped church members with various discrimination cases. He was so well known in the community as a man of God and social justice fighter, that he would often visit 1st day churches and get called up to the pulpit by Ministers where he would even sometimes preach. This happened often at Mt. Olivet, Highland (including their tent meetings), Mt. Calvary (now Daniels Memorial), Open Door House of Prayer, Emmanuel Church of God in Christ United and others.

From 1971-1974 he worked for the Albina Child Care Center as a Head start Teacher. During the 70’s, Lucien was pleased about the enforcement of the affirmative action act to try to place an end to discrimination, which he feels helped him get a management job with the State of Oregon. He worked for the state from 1974-1990 as a Supervisor and Acting Branch Manager.

In 1976, the family moved from Portland, OR to Vancouver, WA where he lived the remainder of his life. In 1990 he began his teaching career and he worked within the Portland, Beaverton, and Clark County School Districts. From 1999 to the age of 81 he continued working as a substitute teacher for the Portland Public Schools.

In October of 1991 after the Your Bible Speaks (YBS) Evangelistic crusade in Portland, the church began to form. While the church was going to be made up of mostly young adults, Lucien and his wife Mariette were asked to leave Sharon church and help start the YBS church as mentors. Lucien and Mariette became the founding members of YBS when it officially became a church in 1992. He served as head elder where he taught lay members how to preach. He was always pushing for equal rights for women in the church in terms of them preaching and becoming elders.

After serving at YBS for over 20 years, they returned to Sharon church. Lucien resumed his position as Elder and became the Prison Ministry leader there and Sabbath School teacher. He served the Oregon Conference as a lay preacher and would preach at various churches through-out the state of Oregon and Washington.

After retirement from teaching, Lucien desired to continue learning. He took classes at Clark College and became a certified Paralegal. He also studied New Testament Greek and Algebra on his own. In addition, in his spare time he enjoyed working for the Lord, talking about the Lord, and sharing his knowledge of the Bible. He was deeply passionate about Prison Ministries and serving those behind bars.

Lucien loved writing and reciting poetry. His favorite French poet was Afro- Caribbean author and politician Aimé Césaire from Martinique. He always spoke highly of him and Lucien even met with him when he visited Martinique in the 90’s. Aimé

was one of the founders of the Négritude movement. Lucien always taught that the movement began with French speaking African and Caribbean writers protesting colonialism and the rule and policy of assimilation.

Lucien enjoyed a variety of music from choir anthems, southern gospel, traditional gospel, French and English hymns along with praise and worship music. He was always proud to support his daughter in her musical journey of which he was her influence from a young age. He had given scripture or prayer for the Lift Every Voice Community Workshop Concert that she had coordinated at Sharon SDA Church for the past 20 years.

He enjoyed playing volleyball and soccer and watching the Trail Blazers play. He was a skilled swimmer and loved swimming in the ocean, even in the cold Pacific. Lucien also enjoyed playing checkers and dominoes and was extremely competitive. If while playing dominoes he randomly broke out into singing a French song or slapped the domino hard on the table, you knew you were in trouble and he was soon to win!

Lucien was passionate about life, family, his French culture and history of his native island of Martinique. He spoke three languages fluently, French, Creole, and English. He would always say that we must “continue to gaze at Jesus” and make sure to “get ready, be ready, and stay ready for Jesus to come.” While we will miss this patriarch of our family and pillar of the church and community, we know we will see him again in that great getting up morning. The last song he heard his daughter sing was “Ride on King Jesus” just a few days prior to his passing. The last words the family heard him say were “keep riding”. We all loved Lucien very much and we will “keep riding” that old ship of Zion.

Lucien was preceded in death by his parents Nicolas Loiseau and Marie-Anne Pascal Lagier Loiseau. His 2 brothers Bernadin Loiseau, Gentil Loiseau and his 3 sisters Anita Loiseau, Elisa Loiseau-Nomis and Jan Loiseau-Ursulet. He leaves to mourn, his wife of 54 years, Mariette Armande Hunt Loiseau, his daughter Linda Marie Loiseau Foxworth and her husband, his son-in-law Derrick Foxworth Sr., and various members of the Defoi, Foxworth, Hodges, Hunt, Marshall, Ursulet and Wright, families, along with an entire host of Loiseau nieces, nephews and cousins in Martinique and France.

Funeral Service on Friday, July 17, 2020 at 12:00 pm By invitation only (due to COVID- 19).

Funeral will be streamed live  - access livestream using link below.

Reflection Videos: To be shown at the funeral. You may send a short 2 minute video from your smartphone in landscape mode with stories and reflections of Elder Loiseau. Send videos to Email: mark@markbvideo.com and state Loiseau Reflections. Videos must be received by Sunday, July 12, 2020 by 6 PM. (Select videos will be shown, but all will be saved to be shared with the family).

Graveside Service: After the funeral July 17, 2020 at 3PM at Lincoln Memorial Park: 11801 SE Mt. Scott Blvd, Portland, OR. 97086 (Only 25 people allowed, others may stay parked in their cars).

***Public Viewing Procedures***  

 * Masks Are Required.      

* Up To 5 Persons In The Building At One Time With Social Distancing Enforced In The Building .      

* Up To 2 People In The Viewing Room At One Time.  Names and Phone Numbers Are Required For Potential Covid-19 Tracing Notification.  

 

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Lucien L. Loiseau, please visit our floral store.