Jean-Paul Philbert was born in Knutange, Moselle, Lorraine (now Grand Est, France), on September 1, 1928. When doing his research on Charles Messier in the late 1990s, he lived in the small commune of Domèvre-sur-Vezouze, Meurthe-et-Moselle, also Lorraine (France), close to Badonviller, Messier's place of birth and hometown of youth. In Domèvre he had a comfortable life together with his spouse, Thérèse Lugoy (1932-2016). About in the middle of the 2000 decade, Jean-Paul and Thérèse moved to Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, where they lived for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, our contact was lost in course of Jean-Paul's relocation from Domèvre to Nancy. Jean-Paul passed away on March 13, 2018 in Nancy.
The present author [hf] had the honor to proof-read parts of "The Comet Ferret" in 1998-2000. Durning this cooperation, Jean-Paul contributed significantly to the historic part of the SEDS Messier webpages, notably our Biography of Charles Messier." We were in considerably close contact around the publication of his book, and enjoyed the opportunity to meet him, and stay in his house in April, 2001 during the Hommage for Charles Messier sponsored by the Société Lorraine d'Astronomie.
To my information, Jean-Paul Philbert also published at least four more books. A tentative list of published books is given here:
.. more in preparation ..
References