Jocelyne Couture-Nowak

A French instructor from Truro, Nova Scotia, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak moved 8 years ago to Virginia Tech, where her husband, Jerzy Nowak, teaches horticulture. She had worked passionately to spread the French language, and was described as vibrant, enthusiastic and dynamic by the vice president of administration, Bernie MacDonald, at Nova Scotia Agricultural College, where she taught French.

She was instrumental in the push to create Truro's first French school in 1997.

Couture-Nowak is survived by two daughters, one named Sylvie who is in her mid-teens, and a grown daughter named Francine, according to a friend Claire Russell.