About Bryant C. Freeman
Dr. Bryant C. Freeman was an Emeritus Professor of African and African American Studies and
former Chair of French at the University of Kansas. He is primarily known for being the Founder
and Director of the Institute of Haitian Studies, one of the first such institutes in a major
university in the United States. Freeman received his Ph.D. in French from Yale University,
specializing in the work of Jean Racine. He was an instructor for the United Nations Observers
in Haiti, an advisor for U.S. and U.N. Peace-Keeping Forces in Haiti, receiving the protocol rank
of Major General.
First American admitted to France’s prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris) and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Virginia, he received an M.A. and Ph.D. in French Language and Literature from Yale University while both a Woodrow Wilson and Yale University Fellow. After teaching at Yale and the University of Virginia (1955-1971), he was appointed Professor of French at the University of Kansas (1971-2007), serving as Chair of French & Italian (1971-1976).
Beginning as a teenager, he was an inveterate world traveler, spending time in 85 countries. While frequently on extended leave, Dr. Freeman was in charge of screening Haitian refugees for the Dept. of Justice at the US Naval Base, Guantánamo, Cuba, and served as instructor in Haiti for United Nations/OAS observers as well as for US Peace Corps volunteers. With the protocol rank of Major-General, he was advisor for US and UN Peace-Keeping Forces in Haiti. Among his many publications are a six-volume Haitian-English English-Haitian Dictionary and a three-volume Medicine in Haiti, including Third-World Folk Beliefs and Practices: Haitian Medical Anthropology. His Survival Creole was published also in French, Spanish, and German editions. For publication in the Haitian language, he collected and edited two volumes of some 150 Haitian folktales, as well as an 18-volume edition of the complete works of Haiti’s great novelist Carrié Paultre. The US State Department entrusted him to provide the official English translation of President Aristide’s resignation message.
Almost his entire adult life was enhanced by the company of Clumber Spaniels. He was a founding member of both the Charlottesville-Albemarle Kennel Club and the Clumber Spaniel Club of America, Inc., later serving as president of each. For many years he was the breed’s official representative to the American Kennel Club, and authored its Clumber column. He published nine books on Clumbers, and was on the committee to rewrite the breed’s Standard. Among his numerous accolades were a Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to the Haitian People, a US Dept. of Justice Special Service Award, Kansas Humanities Council and Kansas French Educator of the Year Awards.
He died on February 3, 2024 at the age of 92, though he continued working with Dr. Jayaram on Haitian Creole topics even into summer 2023.