FIRST PICAO AND ICAO SECRETARY GENERAL
TERM OF OFFICE: PICAO 1944-1947; ICAO 1947-1951
Albert Jean François Roper was born in Paris on 21 April 1891. He received a Doctor of Law from the Faculty in Paris.
Dr. Roper served in World War I, enlisting in the infantry in 1914 and transferring to the Flying Corps in 1916. By the end of the war, he was a captain-pilot in command of a fighter squadron. He was awarded five citations and the Cross of the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
Dr. Roper's career in international aviation began during the Peace Conference of 1919. As the first and only Secretary General of the International Commission for Air Navigation (ICAN), established in 1922, he was among the first to defend the principles of world cooperation in civil aviation. He held this position for twenty-five years until ICAN was disbanded in 1947. As the representative of ICAN, it was his duty to defend the general interests of aviation at international conferences.
The Steering Committee of the Aviation Conference on Civil Aviation, which met in Chicago in November-December 1944, engaged him as a consultant in order to benefit from his universally recognized experience. In July 1945, the Canadian Government invited him to assist it in the preparatory work for the first meeting of the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (PICAO) to be convened in Montreal on 15 August 1945. He was Secretary General of the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (PICAO) from 1944 to 1947 and became the Secretary General of ICAO on 28 May 1947. He held that position until his retirement on 31 December 1951.
Dr. Albert Roper died on 2 May 1969 at the age of 78.
