Death:Death, Cause unspecified 31 March 2005 (Age 86) chart Placidus Equal_H.
French entrepreneur and political activist. He was the co-founder of Fnac, originally Fédération nationale d’achats des cadres, or National Purchasing Federation of Managers, alongside Max Théret. André Essel was also an antifacist activist and a believer of Trotskyism. He died on 31 March 2005, Paris. Link to Wikipedia biography
Essel André was born on September 4, 1918, in Toulouse, France. He was a French Resistance fighter during World War II and a recipient of the Croix de Guerre.
André joined the Resistance in 1940, after the German invasion of France. He worked as a courier and helped to organize escape routes for Allied soldiers and downed airmen. In 1943, he was arrested by the Gestapo and was imprisoned for the rest of the war.
After the war, André returned to France and worked as a civil servant. He was also active in veteran's organizations and was a member of the French Communist Party.
André died in 2002 at the age of 83.