Richard de Rochemont

De Rochemont was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in 1903.^[1][2] He was educated at Cambridge Latin School and Williams College, then graduated from Harvard College in 1928.^[1] He and initially worked in newspapers, for the Boston Advertiser and The New York Sun.^[1] He started his film career as a foreign editor for Fox Movietone News (1930–1934).^[3]

Stationed in France until 1941,^[4] de Rochemont produced a series of shorts which covered subjects like World War II, the 1920s, and the Vatican. In 1943,^[5] de Rochemont became the president of France Forever^[6] and continued his action until after the Liberation, giving way to Doctor Albert Simard.^[5] From 1943 to 1951, de Rochemont was executive producer of The March of Time newsreel series, which was co-created by his brother, Louis de Rochemont.^[1]

De Rochemont produced Crusade in Europe (1949),^[7] the very first documentary series produced for television,^[8] based on the book by Dwight D. Eisenhower, produced by Time Inc., and distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox Television. He was producer for A Chance to Live (1949), which won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short at the 22nd Academy Awards (1950).^[1]

In 1952, de Rochemont produced various films on Abraham Lincoln.^[9] In 1955, he founded his own film production company, Vavin Incorporated.^[10][11] The company produced instructional films for organizations like Reader's Digest and the French Tourist Office between the 1950s and 1980s.^[3] De Rochemont retired from Vavin in 1980.^[1] He was also the author or co-author of three cookbooks.^[1]

De Rochemont died in 1982 in Flemington, New Jersey.^[1]