Georges Henri Pire

Georges Henri Pire (1910-1969), Belgian priest and Nobel laureate, who worked to help people suffering from the effects of poverty and war.

Pire was born in Dinant, Belgium. At the outset of World War I (1914-1918), when he was four years old, invading German troops forced his family to flee Belgium. The family remained in France for the duration of the war. Drawn to the Roman Catholic priesthood, Pire entered the Catholic monastery at La Sarte in Huy, Belgium, at the age of 18. There he took the religious name Henri Dominique. He was ordained in 1934 and earned a doctorate in theology at Collegio Angelica, a Dominican university in Rome, two years later.

Pire returned to La Sarte in 1937 to teach sociology and moral philosophy. He spent much of his time working with poor rural families in the area. He established the Mutual Family Aid Service to help poverty-stricken farm children, and he created a program to expose city children to the fresh air of the country. After Nazi troops invaded Belgium during World War II (1939-1945), these open-air camps were transformed into refugee centers to help feed hungry Belgian children.

Pire was chaplain to the Belgian underground resistance movement during World War II. He also worked as an intelligence agent for the Belgian government. He delivered messages and participated in an organized effort to aid the escape of Allied pilots who had been shot down in enemy territory.

After the war, Pire focused his efforts on relief for those elderly and children who had been displaced by the fighting. He helped organize refugee camps for French and Belgian youngsters, and he initiated a godparent program in which volunteers sent letters, gifts, and packages to young refugees. In addition to his work with children, Pire helped numerous elderly refugees who had lived in camps during the war. Pire conceived and oversaw the creation of communal homes and villages that were designed to help refugees gain self-sufficiency and reintegrate with society. The villages, financed through private contributions, housed about 150 refugees each and were situated near cities in Belgium, France, and Germany.

Pire was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize (see Nobel Prizes) in 1958 at the age of 48; at the time, he was the youngest person ever to receive the award. Pire donated the prize money to refugee organizations, and he continued his work with refugees, focusing on displaced persons in Africa and Asia.