Jon Andoni Franco Elorza graduated in English Philology from the University od Deusto in 1986 and received his PhD in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of Southern California in 1992, with a thesis on Object Agreement in Spanish. A year later he began working as a professor at the Faculty of Philology and Letters at the University of Deusto. From that moment on, he devoted himself to those students in whom he sensed a vocation for linguistic studies. He encouraged them to continue their education in the field, to carry out postgraduate studies abroad, often at US universities. He also supervised their first professional steps.
Jon’s remarkable contribution and his outstanding recognition in the scientific field are part of his footprint. Thanks to his dedication and constant work, there exists now, also, an informal international network of professionals dedicated to the studies of Basque linguistics. Jon Franco, tenured professor at UD, is now remembered by his peers at the university and by multiple generations of students who followed in his footsteps in the study of language. It all constitutes the great legacy of a unique linguist.
Vídeo de parte de su intervención inicial.
Four decades go a long way, but even so, many things remained pending for us. Among them, a project on prosodic patterns and rock & roll.
Jon always ended his emails with a music video. I want to do the same and include here a song by Judas Priest (one of our shared passions) which I think is perfect for the occasion.
...
We'll play on till the end
It's no over not over my friends
We are together tonight
Reunited for all of our lives
And we thank you for it all
We'll never forget
When I became his student I discovered an unusual teacher. Many students would find him inconvenient, due to the fact he would provide them more data than the expected for the established lecture, due to the way he expressed himself, his manners... But other students were able to see his enthusiasm when talking about the language and how language works, and so little by little he hooked us. And he did it by motivating us, believing in our value and in our potential. It has been more than twenty years now. Like Alex, I have been fortunate to share with Jon my interest in linguistics and also in music all this time. Jon has not been an unusual teacher. He has been a unique teacher.