Aimery Caron

Aimery Caron
Born (1930-04-20) April 20, 1930
Paris, France
CitizenshipUnited States
Employers
Relatives
Academic background
Education

Aimery Pierre Caron is an American historian of the Caribbean region and a professor emeritus of chemistry. He has published various papers and books on the Virgin Islands or Danish West Indies and wider Caribbean history, often in collaboration with Arnold R. Highfield, including the history of slavery, colonialism, Port Jews, and the French and Amerindian legacies in the Caribbean.[1][2][3][4]

Early life and family

Born in Boulogne-Billancourt (Seine), Paris in 1930, he is the older brother of French film actress and dancer Leslie Caron. His great-grandfather was Ernest Caron, a leading city councillor in Paris during the Belle Epoque. His parents settled in the US Virgin Islands after World War II, where they established a luxury goods store in Charlotte Amalie named C & M Caron.[5][6] Aimery Caron became a naturalised US citizen in 1956, and renounced French nationality when he followed his parents to settle in St Thomas in 1968. He married Joyce Donovan Caron there in 1981 (his second marriage) and has a daughter from his first marriage.

He and his sister won a complex international court case against fraud on their father's estate.[7][8] The case of Caron v. Odell addresses aspects of French inheritance law, particularly concerning forced heirship and the manipulation of conflict of laws. The ruling emphasises the application of French law in matters of succession, especially when assets are located in France.[9]

Chemistry career

Caron received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from UCLA in 1955, a master's and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 1958 and 1960 respectively, before pursing a career in the US as a chemist.[5][10]

Caron specialised in crystallography. His published works included articles in Nature, the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the Journal of Physical Chemistry, Acta Crystallographica, the Journal of Polymer Science, the Journal of Chemical Physics, the Journal of the Optical Society of America, and Helvetica Chimica Acta.

From the 1960s to the 1990s Caron was an associate professor of chemistry and held a number of additional roles at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), notably as Director of the UVI Community Services Office.

Caron retired from the University of the Virgin Islands as professor emeritus in 2001.[11][12]

Historian

Caron's commitment to his community manifests in his work on literacy and alcohol programs [13], as well as a decades-long commitment to researching the history of the islands and its people.[14] He has long been a member of a number of Caribbean historical societies (for instance the Saint Thomas Historical Trust), archaeological societies and committees, as has been noted in the Virgin Islands Daily News.[15]

To correct an apparent bias in overlooked or buried histories, he has spent many years researching elusive records and histories of the Caribbean, publishing translations of primary French sources, listing tax records, delving into port and ship records, particularly in the Virgin Islands and most often focused on St Thomas US V.I.[16][17][18]

A 62 page inventory compiled by Caron titled Inventory of French Documents Pertaining to the United States Virgin Islands (1642-1737) and published by the Bureau of Libraries, Museums, Archaeology Services of the Department of Conservation and Cultural Affairs, was made possible by a sabbatical granted by the University of the Virgin Islands, and was created in collaboration with the Archives Nationales in Paris, France.[19]

Some of Caron's research topics include the French on Sainte Croix in the 17th century, the 1733 slave insurrection on St. John and the French intervention, the Catholic Church on Sainte Croix between 1650 and 1696, General Santa Anna in St. Thomas, the Amerindians and their legacy in the Virgin Islands, and the German Empire and the American purchase of the Danish West Indies.[20][21] He has also researched wider Antillian culture, including cuisine.[22]

A Caribbean history co-authored by Caron with Arnold R. Highfield titled The French Intervention in the St. John Slave Revolt of 1733–34, is listed as a secondary source in the bibliography of In a Sea of Empires by Jeppe Mulich and published by Cambridge University Press in 2020 and other books such as Backtime Religion in the Danish West Indies (Bloomsbury, 2025), along with his book The Danish Port of Charlotte Amalia 1790-1803 (CGL, 2015).[23][24][25]

Other activities

From 1993 to the present, Caron has been a board member of the U.S. Selective Service System.[26]

In 1994, Caron was awarded the Ordre des Palmes académiques, a national honour bestowed by the Fifth French Republic.[27]

He served as the honorary Consul of France for the US Virgin Islands from 1983 to 2001.[28]

References

  1. ^ "Aimery Caron Publications". Caribbean Genealogy Library.
  2. ^ "Caron's 'Charlotte Amalia' Research a Highlight of Genealogy Group Meeting". Virgin Islands Daily News. 27 January 2026.
  3. ^ "Notes, The Akan Diaspora in the Americas". Oxford Academic.
  4. ^ Source staff (23 July 2003). "Symposium on Danish West Indies". The St Croix Source, US Virgin Islands. Retrieved 18 February 2026.
  5. ^ a b Caron, Aimery (30 May 2007). "Aimery Caron Wants to be a Delegate to the Convention". The Saint Thomas Source.
  6. ^ "Our Story". Cardow Jewelers.
  7. ^ "In re Estate of Claude Caron (23.V.I.93) Deceased". Case Law Vlex Library Knowledge base. 16 December 1987.
  8. ^ "In re the Estate of Caron - Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands". Court Listener Free Law Project. 16 December 1987.
  9. ^ "Caron v Odell". Uniset United Settlement Hosting Academic and Scholarly materials on private international law. 20 March 1985. Retrieved 19 February 2026.
  10. ^ "The Early Spanish Names of Saint Croix and the Virgin Islands". Virgin Islands Daily News. 12 February 2026.
  11. ^ "Aimery Caron". University of the Virgin Islands Blogspot -We are UVI. 15 July 2012.
  12. ^ "Emeritus Faculty and Administration" (PDF). University of the Virgin Islands uvi.edu.
  13. ^ "Alcoholism Institute is June 2 to 13". The Virgin Islands Daily News. Google Books. 9 May 1980. p. 7. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
  14. ^ "Management Course Begins at College". The Virgin Islands Daily News. Google Books. 25 October 1978. p. 11.
  15. ^ "Archaeological Group formed at Recent Meet". The Virgin Islands Daily News. Google Books. 5 February 1974. p. 2. Retrieved 16 February 2026.
  16. ^ Lawaets, Caron, Rowe and Turnbull. the Bicentenial of the United States of America, A Final Report to the people, Virgin Islands American Revolution Commission. US Government Printing Office. p. 380. ISBN 0-9601232-6-1. Retrieved 16 February 2026.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ Caron, Aimery. "The Port Jews of Charlotte Amalia in 1803". Google Scholar. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
  18. ^ Caron, Aimery. "Search author Aimery Caron". Library Thing, ST T Historical Trust's books.
  19. ^ "Publication, Inventories, Documents". The Virgin Islands Daily News. Google Books. 28 June 1978. p. 11. Retrieved 16 February 2026.
  20. ^ Pannet, Caron & Highfield (1984). "Report on the Execrable Conspiracy carried out by the Amina Negroes on the Danish island of Sant Jan in America in 1733". Internet Archive.
  21. ^ Caron, Aimery (February 2013). "The Port Jews of Charlotte Amalia in 1893; A research Paper for the Caribbean Genealogy Library" (PDF). CGL.vi. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
  22. ^ Caron, Aimery (3 August 2023). "The origins of modern day kallaloo". Virgin Islands Daily News, Letters. Retrieved 18 February 2026.
  23. ^ "Bibliography - In a Sea of Empires". Cambridge University Press. 24 June 202.
  24. ^ Murphy, Tessa (2021). "In A Sea of Empires, Book review". Duke University Press.
  25. ^ Carter, Gregory (2025). Backtime Religion in the Danish West Indies, Bibliography. Google Books: Bloomsbury Books. p. 226. ISBN 978-1-9787-6711-9. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
  26. ^ "Annual Report to Congress 2012" (PDF). SSS.gov. p. 21.
  27. ^ "dossiers de promotions dans l'ordre des palmes académiques 1994-2012". archives-nationals culture.gouv.fr.
  28. ^ "Dr Aimery Caron Presents the History of Charlotte Amalie 1803 to 1823". St Thomas Source. 26 January 2026.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.