Professor remembered for lifetime in academia


Paulette Chandler, a lecturer in French language and culture at USC, died unexpectedly on March 7 following a medical procedure.

“She’ll be really missed. It’s hard for us, as a department, to learn the news and realize that she’s no longer with us,” said Julia Chamberlin, a senior lecturer of French language and culture.

After earning her Ph.D. in French literature at USC in 1992, Chandler went on to teach in the Department of French and Italian for 24 years. Before joining USC’s faculty full-time, she also taught at many other local institutions, including the California Institute of Technology and University of California, Los Angeles.

“She was very dedicated to USC. She was always here, even on days when she wasn’t teaching — she would be on campus, meeting with students, and trying to do as much as she could to help out her students and do the best she could as a teacher,” Chamberlin said.

Chandler was an accomplished scholar who regularly presented her work on French literature at conferences and was active in USC’s chapter of the national French honor society Pi Delta Phi.

“I lost a friend and a piece of France anchored in L.A.,” Nathalie Burle, a senior lecturer of French language and culture, said in an email to the Daily Trojan. “Dr. Chandler was an accomplished linguist and scholar of French, and her students appreciated her for enriching their lives and providing them with an in-depth knowledge of the French language and cultures that very few can provide. It would be an honor if USC could pay tribute to her hard work by giving her posthumously the recognition she deserved.”

Her colleagues will remember her for the kindness, enthusiasm and generosity that she showed to her friends and students.

“She always had a smile on her face and cared so much for the people with whom she worked that she not only remembered their birthdays, but always greeted them with flowers, chocolates and kind words. She could be counted on to cultivate an esprit de corps, not just among her students, but as a collegial presence within the department,” Sherry Velasco, the chair of the Department of French and Italian, said in an email to the Daily Trojan.

Her constant optimism and sense of style served as a source of inspiration for those around her.

“One of the things that really struck me about her was that she really, really never had a bad day. You could never tell if she was having a hard day or if she was upset about anything, because she was always smiling and never complained about anything,” said Lorena Gallego, a senior lecturer in Spanish language and culture. “The way I will remember her is how stylish, fashionable she was, and how she never had a single bad day.”

Gallego cited Chandler’s kindness as the enduring legacy that she will leave behind at USC.

“She represented USC very well. She had all the positive qualities that Trojans stand for,” Gallego said. “She was really just a wonderful, wonderful person.”

Chandler is survived by her husband, Richmond Chandler.

The Department of French and Italian will be holding a memorial service for Chandler from 4 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday in Doheny Memorial Library, room 240.