Repair expert's interesting life a tale to be written

The Daily Herald's intrepid home improvement columnist, Vermont-based Henri de Marne, retired in early January after 47 years of writing his once nationally syndicated column that answered readers' questions about house problems.

He is 95, but for this man, age was not enough of an excuse to retire. Instead, he is now spending his time writing his memoirs for his children, grandchildren and anyone else who is interested. It will undoubtedly be a worthwhile endeavor.

The French-born construction expert has led an amazing life and his readers haven't known the half of it, so in honor of his years of service to our readers, we wanted to enlighten you.

Henri de Marne was born in Paris in 1923 to a French industrialist father and a Russian mother. He was followed soon after by a sister and a brother. When he was quite young, the family moved to a large estate about 60 miles south of Paris and lived a wealthy life there until 1930 when his father lost everything in the European financial crisis that coincided with the Great Depression in the U.S.

The family soon after moved back to Paris where his mother got a job. His father went to Africa to try to rebuild his fortune and eventually Henri and his siblings were shipped off to the countryside to live with their paternal grandparents.

When economic conditions improved by 1938, they all moved back to Paris to live in a rented house, but that stability only lasted a year before the Germans declared war. So they went back to the country to attend secondary school in the town next to their grandparents' home.

When the Germans invaded France on May 10, 1940, the de Marne family tried to escape south but the traffic was heavy and bridges had been bombed and they were eventually turned back to Paris, where they lived under the German occupation and Allied bombing campaigns.

Henri and his younger brother, Claude, joined the Red Cross and the Civil Defense Force and became certified in first aid. They would be regularly called out to help put dead bodies and body parts into wooden caskets and take them to the local morgues.

"During 1942, the bombing was constant whenever the skies were clear," de Marne recalled.

"I was called out so often that I actually got little schooling during that time," he continued. "My sister, Nadine, also helped. She worked in the kitchen of a relief train and set up folding tables."

When the Allies finally reached Paris and liberated it, de Marne and the Second French Armored Division, with whom he had been serving, attached themselves to Gen. George S. Patton's U.S. Third Army and moved into Germany where they saw, firsthand, the horrors of the German Holocaust.

During that time, de Marne became friendly with two American officers who offered to sponsor him in the United States after the war.

When he and Claude were discharged from the French Army in 1945 - which they did quickly for those of school age, the two returned to Paris, escorting a disabled Sherman tank on a flatbed train car on the journey. It took them three weeks, but they were discharged as soon as they and the tank reached Paris.

Despite his lack of formal schooling, de Marne was able to enroll in law school and studied French law for a year. But he became nervous over the activities of the Communists and decided to seek out those Americans who had offered to sponsor him in the United States. Both - a judge in Omaha, Nebraska, and the other, an investment banker in Cleveland - came through and rushed him the necessary paperwork.

Incidentally, his parents divorced after the war. His mother stayed in France and worked as an accountant for the French government. His father moved to Morocco, married his mistress and then eventually settled in Provence, France. His brother moved to Liechtenstein, a small country near Germany, where he still lives; and his sister became a reporter and was killed in a plane crash at the age of 30.

When Henri went to the American embassy in Paris to get a visa, he met a beautiful American woman named Muriel in the office who, shortly thereafter, became his first wife. In 1946 the new couple crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a converted troop ship, arrived in New York and later went to live in Washington, D.C., with her mother and stepfather.

Henri de Marne's job hunting was hampered by his severe lack of English but after a false start or two he was recruited to teach French conversation at the University of Maryland. While teaching there he earned a master's degree in French literature with a minor in English literature, and also taught French language courses at the Pentagon and the Department of Agriculture.

But the university wanted him to go on for a doctorate and he didn't see that in his future, so he took a job as the French Master at a private secondary school in Washington and stayed there for four years, coaching soccer and track for extra money. During the summers he taught canoeing and managed the waterfront at a summer camp near Burlington, Vermont.

"By this time, Muriel and I had bought a small house in Bethesda, Maryland, which I built an addition onto. You see, I had become interested in architecture and studied on the side. Around the corner from us lived a man who taught at another school. Our daughters were friends. He had started a small home remodeling business on the side and saw me working on my addition. He approached me in 1957 and asked me to work for him for the same money that the school was paying me and I agreed because I wanted to do something other than teach," he reminisced.

De Marne ended up supervising the company's remodeling crew, doing estimates and writing contracts. His boss, in the process, taught him about building materials and construction techniques. Eventually de Marne was made a partner and then in 1966, he bought the entire business and renamed it H. de Marne Inc.

By 1970, he was the president of the chamber of commerce in Potomac, Maryland. But when cookie-cutter builders began moving in and cutting up Potomac's large lots, its wealthy citizens moved away and de Marne sold his popular construction firm.

He moved his wife, two daughters and one son to Vermont when he was only 45 and shuttled back and forth to Maryland until the firm's sale was final in 1976.

While enjoying his new home in Vermont, de Marne began reading do-it-yourself columns and scoffed at the writers' advice. He knew he could do it better and began marketing himself - getting his first job with the Washington Star in 1974. A few years later his editor told him that he was getting so much mail that he should market himself to the syndicates. In 1980, it all finally clicked and he was syndicated by United Features Syndicate.

He also inspected homes, acted as an expert witness in construction litigation cases throughout Vermont, New Hampshire and New York, and spoke at a conference for the National Association of Home Builders and at symposiums for the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army and the Atomic Energy Commission. And de Marne also acted as a construction consultant to many homeowners, edited the Readers Digest "New Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual" and wrote his own home-repair manual, "About the House with Henri de Marne."

He and Muriel divorced in 1990, but remained friendly. In 1995 de Marne met his current wife, Susan, who needed construction assistance. They married in 2005.

In 2016, national syndication ended for de Marne's column, "First Aid for the Ailing House," because of the shrinking print journalism market. But three publications prevailed upon him to continue - the Daily Herald, The Free Press in Burlington, Vermont, and another in Massachusetts.

But now, he has decided to end his column for good and write those memoirs for which his family has been asking.

Many thanks, Henri, and enjoy your retirement!

• Henri de Marne, a former remodeling contractor, columnist and consultant, is the author of "About the House with Henri de Marne" (Upper Access Publishing). Now that he is retired, he will no longer be answering readers' questions; however his website, www.henridemarne.com, will remain online for research. To contact de Marne, email henridemarne@gmavt.net.

Final tips from Henri de Marne

After more than 40 years of sharing construction and home repair advice with readers, here are my final, universal tips:

<span class="leadin character">1)</span> When planning to buy a house, be sure you insist on a home inspection.

It is best not to take your broker's recommendation, as he or she may have a vested interest in recommending someone who will have the broker's interest in mind (to encourage further referrals) and not yours, the client.

My recommendation is to choose a certified home inspector from the American Society of Home Inspectors, 932 Lee St., Suite 101, Des Plaines, (847) 759-2820. On ASHI's website (www.ashi.com), you'll be directed to inspectors near you.

ASHI, established in 1976, is the oldest organization of certified professional home inspectors, of which I was an early and proud member for many years.

Other home inspection organizations have sprouted over the years, but I don't have any experience with them, their training and requirements for continuing education.

<span class="leadin character">2)</span> Most basement and crawl space water problems are caused by poor grading around the house. Have a professional home inspector, savvy contractor or professional engineer offer recommendations to cure the leakage problems.

<span class="leadin character">3)</span> Radon inspections are highly recommended, but choose the alpha-track testing kits instead of the charcoal ones. Charcoal kits only test the radon level during the one- or two-day period of use before they are sent to a lab. Alpha-track kits offer a long-term test period through the cold months, and are far more accurate.

You can buy kits in certain hardware and big box stores and on Amazon. Water should also be tested.

The only advantage of charcoal testing and testing with the fancy kits some inspectors will offer is that it gives you a quick reading in case the level is found to be above the recommended safe level of 0.4 picocuries. If the testing shows a lower level, this is no assurance that there is not a problem at other times of the year.

A test in warm months is quite useless as it will give you the same reading as the outside air we breathe.

- Henri de Marne