André Récipon (1925-2015) served as President of the Association Française Raoul Follereau and of ILEP.
In 1946, Raoul Follereau founded the Order of Charity which would become the Raoul Follereau Foundation. In 1968, in a legal document signed before a lawyer, Follereau named as heirs the children of two people who had sheltered him in Saint-Étienne during the war. The Rameads were herbalists and their son-in-law, who was to take on the burden of this responsibility, was André Récipon. In doing so, Follereau established the Raoul Follereau Organisation or the Order of Charity, entrusting Récipon with the administration and development of the organisation. In addition to carrying on the various projects that Follereau had established, the organisation was tasked with continuing his annual fund-raising campaign for “the struggle against leprosy and all other kinds of leprosy”, as World Leprosy Day.
Récipon served as President of ILEP three times, twice in the early years and later in the period 1986-1988.
When Récipon announced his retirement from the Association Française Raoul Follereau, on 20 June 1992, he received the title of Honorary Member. The office passed to his son, Michel, who was elected unanimously to succeed him by the Board.
Récipon died on 16 January, 2015.
Sources:
Étienne Thévenin, Raoul Follereau: Hier at Aujourd’hui (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1992).
Association Internationale des Fondations Raoul Follereau: Son histoire; Ses buts (Paris).