Thanks to Jed Rothwell for reporting this sad news. David French was certainly a friend of LENR, and will be sorely missed. Unfortunately, he did not live to see the day LENR becomes recognized as a legitimate science.
We have many members (and guests) here who know, or are acquainted with David. If you would like to add your personal observations, his contributions to the field, or dedication to advancing the science, please feel free to do so.
Sad.
His papers were very didactic, and he was kind in exchanges.
He visibly tried to help the domain as much as he could, using his long experience as patent expert.
Farewell.
Very sad news 
My sincerest condolences to David French family and friends!
David French was one of the few Canadians that I found following
LENR.Being a Canadian myself I
was interested in what he had to
say about it.
This is very sad news indeed. When somebody dies so suddenly, the shock is most heavy for those nearest to him, my sincerest condolences to them!
People that are engaged in the LENR field are usually aged. I do not know about David French’s age, but I hope his place in the LENR community will soon be taken by somebody young. We need new promoters of LENR!
I had the pleasure of meeting David French at the Asti conference and (in particular) spending a few hours chatting with him over a very pleasant lunch one day. He was a fount of charm, humor and also had a vast amount of knowledge about the world of patents - and many a good anecdote about the patent game. He was generous with his time and his expertise, even offering to wrote me a patent application 'pro bono' if I ever needed one. I had no idea that he was suffering any health problems at all, he certainly was not one for complaining. I had hoped he would come to the recent Greccio conference as I was lookng forward to renewing my acquaintance with him, but sadly that was not to be.
My sympathy to all those saddened by the loss of a real gentleman.
And on Ruby Carat's 'Cold Fusion Now' website, an archive of David's thoughts in writing. https://coldfusionnow.org/patents/
Infinite Energy Magazine has a short tribute to French, and will follow with something more substantial:
A nice farewell by Ruby Carat on Cold Fusion Now
https://coldfusionnow.org/davi…e-to-breakthrough-energy/
Patent lawyer and Cold Fusion Now! contributor David J. French passed away quietly in his sleep the night of Sunday Dec 2.
He spent his career at private law firms and also worked with the Canadian government on law reform and international patent issues before retiring to his own law firm Second Counsel in Ottawa, Canada.
