For some twenty years, at each of the public sessions of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, you saw and heard my eminent predecessor read a Notice in which he displayed his tact, clear-sighted knowledge of men, and benevolent authority….

Composer, organist, music theorist, and teacher, he was also in our company not only as an excellent colleague whom we surrounded with our respect and affection, but also as the vigilant, active, and indefatigable permanent secretary who, notably through the founding of the Casa Velázquez, was able to increase the ascendancy of our Academy, and to propagate the peaceful and liberal influence of France.

Let us think of the disconcerting paradox that Widor was for so long an old man without old age. We knew he was over ninety, but we couldn't believe it. An alert and amusing conversationalist, full of jokes and anecdotes, with a keen ear and a mischievous eye, he was nothing like an old man….

Like yesterday's news, he recounted anecdotes from half a century ago with a smile and no trace of melancholy; his memory and picturesque speech gave them the flavor of current news….

As for the Notices written by Widor, they are alert and lively, retaining the ease and spontaneity of his conversation, and containing a wealth of information that will be consulted by future historians….

How many visitors, artists, teachers, students, aspirants to a prize from the Academy, candidates for a Chair in the Academy, and also colleagues of the Institute came to consult him or confide in him a concern, a desire, or a cause for worry.1 People trusted his clear-sighted authority, and he, with the ascendancy given by age, a fine artistic career, and the most fruitful activity in his high office, felt strong enough not to be weakened either by his good grace or his paternal bonhomie. He listened sympathetically to each visitor; then he would introduce a first anecdote that would make the conversation more relaxed; soon a second anecdote would make a smiling diversion; and by the third anecdote, what had at first seemed thorny was dampened and almost forgotten. Even if one had come to visit Mr. Permanent Secretary about an administrative difficulty, he had enough wit to solve it, or at least to elude it, thanks to the charm of a fourth anecdote, totally unexpected and which came from the distant past.