Jeanot Acheritogaray

May 31, 1936 - June 6, 2020

Jeanot Acheritogaray died peacefully on June 6th, 2020 at his home in San Francisco, succumbing to several illnesses he had been dealing with over the years. Jeanot was born and raised in the village of Ortzaize, Lower Navarre, Basque Country in South-west France. After enduring German occupation with his father interned in a prisoner of war camp in Germany, Jeanot attended school locally and attended secondary school at a boarding school in nearby Orthez, returning home on holidays and for the summers. His favorite sport was rugby where he developed into an accomplished player for several teams. Jeanot worked in restaurants in Lourdes for a few years and then served in the French military during the Algerian War in Avignon & later in Algeria. In 1959 he immigrated to San Francisco where he had a dear cousin help him get a job in the wholesale meat business, and Jeanot spent forty years as a wholesale butcher. Jeanot lived in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood at one of the several Basque boarding houses that operated at the time, most of them centered near Broadway and Stockton. He quickly integrated into the local Basque community and helped found the Basque Club of San Francisco in 1960, where he served as the club’s first secretary. Jeanot was also one of the founding members of the club’s marching bugle band (klika). In 1963 Jeanot married his love, Marie Etchecopar, a native San Franciscan, and they settled in San Francisco’s Richmond District, where they raised two sons. Jeanot enjoyed cycling and swimming and spending time with his family and friends at his weekend home in Lake County. Jeanot also enjoyed catching up with his Basque friends at the Basque Cultural Center, where he was a founding member and where he served on the center’s BBQ crew for many festivals. After Jeanot’s son Robert moved to the Basque Country with his family, Jeanot took great pleasure in visiting them along with the rest of Jeanot’s extended family every summer, which included reconnecting with his spiritual attachment to Mt. Baigura.

Jeanot was preceded in death by his parents Philippe & Marie Jeanne Acheritogaray and by his older brother Alphonse. Jeanot is survived by his wife of 57 years, Marie, his sons Philippe (Cathleen), Robert (Nathalie), his grandchildren Jean-Paul, Mathieu, Andoni, Alaia, Filipe, his brothers JeanPierre & Jean-Baptiste (Isabelle), his sister-in-law Daga, his sister in-law Joan Martinez and brother-inlaw Michel Martinez and several nieces, nephews, grandnieces & grandnephews in France.

A memorial celebration will be scheduled when shelter in place restrictions have been lifted. Donations can be made to the Basque Educational Organization, P.O. Box 31861, San Francisco, CA 94131, or online at BasqueEducational.org.