More than a week after an electrical fire in their Paris hotel, government professor Joseph S. Lepgold and his wife Nikki Dean both remain in “deep comas,” according to Professor George Shambaugh. Shambaugh was one of approximately100 people to attend a gathering of Professor Lepgold’s friends and family in the ICC Galleria Monday evening.

Lepgold, Dean and their 10-year-old son Jordan were in Paris over the Thanksgiving break while Lepgold was speaking at a conference at the Geneva Center for Security Policy and the American Center at Sciences Politiques. According to School of Foreign Service Dean Robert L. Gallucci, the family was on the fifth floor of the Hotel L’Academie when a fire broke out on the third floor Sunday, Nov. 25. The family suffered smoke inhalation. Lepgold remains in Cochin Hospital in Paris; Dean is in a separate hospital. Jordan Lepgold died last Monday as a result of smoke inhalation and possible complications such as carbon monoxide and cyanide poisoning.

Details and updates on their conditions have been slow in coming. “[The family] is under a tremendous amount of pressure. They’ve been dealing with lots of complications with doctors,” Shambaugh said. “We’re having difficulty getting in touch with the family. The family is holding up remarkably well, but it’s hard to imagine a more stressful . painful situation.”

The gathering of friends and family was a way of remembering Jordan and a show of support for the Lepgold family. Several speakers, including several of Lepgold’s colleagues, shared their thoughts on him and his family, and expressed deep concern for their recovery. “All our hearts and prayers are with them,” University Registrar John Q. Pierce said.

Details concerning services for Jordan will be released as they become available.

Attendees of the gathering discussed Lepgold’s commitment to Georgetown. “He was wildly enthusiastic about the university,” Shambaugh said. Others noted Lepgold’s commitment to his profession. “He wanted to be in a place where the best thinking was done in his field,” Gallucci said.

Friends and colleagues described Lepgold as a hard working and diligent leader in his field whose passions include his family, his work and baseball. Lepgold’s most recent work includes co-authoring a book entitled Beyond the Ivory Tower: International Relations Theory and the Problem of Policy Relevance.

“Joe was bubbly and enthusiastic about the book,” Shambaugh said. Gallucci described the book as “dedicated to the proposition that both [the International Relations scholar and practitioner] can work together.”

Friends and neighbors are doing their part to show support for the Lepgold family. According to Shambaugh, members of Jordan’s Boy Scout troop have been raking leaves, cleaning gutters, and helping out around the Lepgold’s house in Arlington, Va.

Lepgold is a professor in the Government department and the SFS. He is known for taking on large classes to accommodate the student demand for his courses. “It’s almost a rite of passage for SFS students to take a class with him,” said Nikhil Patel (SFS ’02), who took Lepgold’s International Relations Theory course last year. Arrangements are being made for other professors to take over the classes Lepgold was scheduled to teach during the spring semester.

Dean worked for ten years in the office of the university registrar and earned her master’s degree in Public Policy from Georgetown.