Pierre-Marie Mallégol, teacher, author, and one of the pioneering parents of Diwan, passed away on September 18, 2026, at the age of 85. He participated in the creation of the very first Diwan school in Lampaul-Ploudalmézeau in 1977.
Born on August 20, 1941, in Pleyben, into a Breton-speaking family of five children, Pierre-Marie Mallégol grew up at the gates of the Monts d’Arrée. Breton was his everyday language, and when he entered school, he did not speak French. This experience would profoundly mark his teaching career and his later commitment to the transmission of the Breton language.
A teacher in the Catholic education system, he settled in Ploudalmézeau starting in 1970, and he and his wife Simone were among the first families to engage in the Diwan adventure. Their son Alan would be one of the first five students at the first school, which opened on May 23, 1977.
Pierre-Marie Mallégol was very actively involved in its creation, attending meetings, seeking funding, and arranging the facilities. Along with Reun L’Hostis, he cleaned and repainted the small classroom in Lampaul-Ploudalmézeau that would welcome the first children. He would later summarize the mindset of these pioneers with the phrase: “To attempt nothing would be a failure.”
He would continue his career in the Catholic education system while also engaging in the teaching of Breton with Dihun, notably as a traveling teacher in Ploudalmézeau, Porspoder, and Guissény. He ended his career as the director of the Sainte-Anne school in Ploudalmézeau before retiring in 1998.
Pierre-Marie Mallégol was also the author of two works. In 2009, “Bruzun Buhez - Miettes de vie, aux portes des Monts d’Arrée” was published, dedicated to the Breton rural world of his childhood. In 2018, Yoran Embanner published “...And the Bretons created... Diwan,” in which he recounts from the inside the early years of the immersive network and the commitment of the founding families.
With his passing, one of the witnesses and actors of the very first steps of Diwan, this “avant-garde of a crazy hope,” in his own words, who had only five students in May 1977, thus fades away.
His funeral will be held on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at 2:30 PM, at the church of Ploudalmézeau.
ABP extends its condolences to his wife Simone, their five children, their grandchildren, and his loved ones.
