Jean Censier

Jean was born in Braine, Aisne, France on October 14, 1908.  He was born to Pol Censier Suzanne Du Puis.  He was an only child and moved to a lot of different areas as a child.  His father, Pol, died when Jean was almost 2 years old.  He did not remember much about him unfortunately but his mother remarried a few years later to Raoul and Jean remembers him for much of his childhood.

Jean was considered to be somewhat of a troublemaker when he was young.  He was a brave young man and had to fend for himself for a lot of his life.  A funny story that I was told was that when Jean was only three years old, a dog was nipping at him.  Jean went and bit at the dog and bit the dog’s nose off.  He was a very tall man standing at 6’1 while most French men were about 5’5”.  He stood out and as a boy was kind of rough around the edges.  He got into fights and into trouble in school.  When Jean was 10 or 11 years old, the house that they lived in had no electricity.  Jean was very handy and hooked up a system so that the house had electricity.

Jean was 17 and wanted to come to America and at this point Raoul had died.  Jean had a very difficult decision, since he was an only child and his mother would be left alone. He decided to come to America and he had some names to contact and only a little money that he had saved up.  He called some of his contacts and told them that he had a background as a chemist.  His first job was in a chemical factory.  He actually almost died while working in the factory while working with a huge amount of chemicals and quit his job after this experience.  He then got another job selling lace material in Union City, New Jersey and then went to New York and worked selling high-class silks.  He was a self-taught self-made man. 

His plan was to stay in America only for a little while but ended up staying for his life.  He went back to France only a couple of times.  He was called to serve in the French Army and fulfilled his required time.  He was called back to France to serve in WWII and didn’t because he had a family in America.  He had married his wife Didi and had two children at this time.  He had become an American citizen by this time but never denounced his French citizenship and therefore was obligated to serve in the war.  He thought that he would be punished for not returning to France for the war and chose not to return to his home and mother.