Jacqueline de Looz, 73
Jacqueline Odette de Looz, who worked at the United Nations in various capacities for more than four decades and who had a house on Abraham’s Path in Amagansett, died on June 2 in Vienna of pancreatic cancer, her family said. She was 73.
Ms. de Looz began her career with Unesco in Paris in 1967 and worked at the U.N. in New York City from 1980 to 2003. Her positions included a post as head of the French edition team for the Official Records Editing Section. Assignments included General Assembly budget resolutions and editing the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1998. After she retired in 2004, she continued working for the U.N. as an editor, translator, and verbatim reporter.
She was born on June 15, 1943, in Boufarik, Algeria, to Alexandre Lecomte and Odette Van der Straeten, one of three siblings. When she was 8 the family relocated to Paris. As a young woman, she traveled to Britain, Germany, and the United States, where she lived with her husband, Bertrand de Looz, whom she married in 1972, and raised three sons.
She earned a master’s degree in French literature from Hunter College in New York in 1979 and spoke Spanish, German, and Russian.
Ms. de Looz’s family described her as a chef with blue-ribbon aplomb and an enchanting hostess. She had a lifelong love of dancing and was the founder of the United Nations and Pilates clubs and a trustee of the United Nations International School. She modeled for paintings by Hunt Slonem and Lucas Samaras. She became an American citizen in 2010.
Swimming at Albert’s Landing Beach in Amagansett was a joy to her, as was her garden with cardinals and chickadees, interlopers that she adored. She attended services at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton, where she was a Eucharistic minister, and where she was awarded Commander of the Star in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.
Ms. de Looz is survived by her husband and sons, Pierre Alexandre de Looz of Brooklyn, Jean-Sebastien de Looz of Manhattan, and Marc-Andre de Looz of Houston, and her siblings, Claude Lecomte of Angers, France, and Andree Hookey of Rye, England.
A private Mass for her was celebrated on Saturday at Holy Family Church in Manhattan by the Rev. Gerald Murray. She was buried at Most Holy Trinity Cemetery in East Hampton.
Memorial contributions have been suggested to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 1500 Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 200, Manhattan Beach, Calif. 90266.