Laurent de Rochefort, 56, of Woods Hole, Mass., graduated from GMUHS in 1982

Laurent Olivier Camille Devereaux de Rochefort of Woods Hole, Mass., free spirit, caring and kind brother, uncle and friend, died on March 27, 2020.  He was 56.

Born on May 28, 1963 in Hong Kong to Jean de Rochefort and Danna de Rochefort (nee Breslin), Laurent graduated in 1982 from Green Mountain Union High School in Chester.

Arriving in the late 1980s in Woods Hole,  initially for a summer, Laurent found acceptance and solace in a close-knit and like-minded community of friends and colleagues attracted to those unique characteristics that define Woods Hole: a rich intellectual and cultural dynamic within a relaxed, supportive, free-spirit, “it-takes-a-village” coastal mindset.

Laurent graciously accepted life’s inevitable challenges and essentially lived with (and demanded) very little.

He had a compelling intellect and epitomized the best qualities of a caring and gentle person who accepted living as it came and defined the essence of resilience. With his keen intellect, he would complete the daily New York Times crossword in seeming world-record time, interspersed with fulfilling his lifetime passion and enjoyment for sailing, which he joyfully engaged in with friends and his beloved and devoted golden retriever Ruckus.

Laurent is predeceased by his father Jean and mother Danna. He is survived by four siblings and nine nieces and nephews: Marc de Rochefort of Toulouse, France, and his children Simone and Tristan; Ghislaine de Rochefort of Washington, D.C., and Barcelona, Spain, and her children Maximilian and Sebastian; Pierre de Rochefort of Geneva, Switzerland, and Portland, Maine, his wife Nina and children Leila and Nicolas; and Alexandra de Buy Wenniger of Topsfield, Mass., her husband Ian and children Isabella, Carolina and James, and of course Ruckus his dog.

A celebration of life service is planned with the Woods Hole community sometime this summer (date and place to be determined and communicated).