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BORN
1971
DIED
2025
Vanessa Arnaud Obituary
February 17, 1971 - May 11, 2025
Granite Bay, California - Vanessa Herold Arnaud, PhD, 54, of Granite Bay, California, passed away peacefully at home on May 11, 2025, with her husband by her side.
Vanessa, born 1971 in Walnut Creek, California, was the daughter of Bruce and Janine Herold. She was a graduate of Las Lomas High School. President of her freshman high school class. Vanessa was an exceptional athlete from an early age, a Class 1 gymnast, cheerleader and varsity diver in high school. She truly was a girl before her time, obtaining her private pilot license at 16.
Vanessa brought that same focus and drive to her academic path, earning a Ph.D. in French and Francophone Literature at UCLA, establishing a foundation for her future work in education.
Vanessa's appreciation for French culture and her love of travel inspired those around her and touched countless lives through her work and journeys. At Sacramento State University, she dedicated her career to bringing energy and originality to French language, literature and civilization courses, and as well as the Honors College courses, leaving a lasting mark on the Honors students and colleagues alike.
Dr. Arnaud presented numerous papers both nationally and internationally, including at the distinguished Modern Language Association. She was awarded the prestigious Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching in the College of Arts & Letters at Sacramento State.
Vanessa will be remembered for her selfless kindness, purity of heart, wry sense of humor and unwavering commitment to her family. She brought joy and comfort to everyone she touched through her love, her teaching, and the grace with which she lived her life.
She is survived by her loving husband, Alfred L. Arnaud; her two children, Alfred Herold Arnaud and Sarah Lynn Arnaud; her parents, Bruce and Janine Herold; her sister, Valerie Herold; her nephew Blake Herold McFalls; and brother in law Michael Sean McFalls.
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Memories and Condolences
for Vanessa Arnaud
Sponsored by Sacbee.com.
Iveth Vazquez
October 25, 2025
Dr.Arnaud, may you rest in peace. Thank you for spreading your positive energy and encouraging your students to travel the world. Our trip to Paris was amazing thanks to you and I will never forget you.
Dr. Gladys M. Francis
August 23, 2025
Dear Arnaud Family,
On behalf of the College of Arts and Letters at Sacramento State, please accept our deepest condolences on the passing of Dr. Vanessa Herold Arnaud. Though I did not have the privilege of knowing her personally, I have come to learn that her presence here was nothing short of extraordinary.
Dr. Arnaud´s life was a radiant testament to intellectual curiosity, cultural passion, and human kindness. Her dedication to French and Francophone literature, her pioneering spirit in the classroom, and her profound impact on the Honors College community continue to echo through the halls of our college. She was not only a scholar of distinction, but a teacher whose grace and generosity shaped the lives of countless students and colleagues.
Her legacy is woven into the very fabric of our academic community-a legacy of excellence, compassion, and inspiration. We honor her memory not only by mourning her loss, but by celebrating the enduring light she brought to our college and the world beyond.
May her family find comfort in knowing that Vanessa´s contributions will continue to inspire future generations of learners, thinkers, and dreamers.
With heartfelt sympathy,
Recevez nos sincères condoléances,
Dr. Gladys M. FRANCIS
Dean, College of Arts and Letters
California State University, Sacramento
Jack Slevin
August 18, 2025
I just came across this and I am absolutely heartbroken to find out Dr. Arnaud has passed. She was the professor of the very first class I had my first day at Sac State and she was a stalwart of the Honors Program. I also met one of my lifelong best friends (and many other great friends!) in her class. My condolences to the family.
A colleague
July 30, 2025
Vanessa´s kindness and professionalism left a lasting impression on everyone she worked with. Even in my brief interactions with her, it was clear how deeply she cared for her students and her work at Sacramento State. My heartfelt condolences to her family and all who loved her.
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Jayden
May 29, 2025
I always felt safe around you to be myself.
Jennifer Normington
May 28, 2025
Vanessa was always kind to me, treating me like a sister... both through Chi Omega and through Valerie. She was always filled with joy and made a difference in the world around her.
Annie Nystrom
May 27, 2025
She was my professor of French II at Sac State. She will always be one of my favorite professors at CSU. She was kind, considerate and taught with a love and concern for all of her students. I even shared with her a place to stay in Biarritz when she was going to take her daughter there a few years ago. What a very sad bit of news. She probably was such a beloved mom, wife and friend to those who knew her even better than I did. Hugs everyone!
María Mayberry
May 27, 2025
Vanessa was a dear colleague in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at Sacramento State. Always smiling, she was very approachable.
I met her many years ago, when I was inquiring about the Writing Partners program at Sac State. Very graciously, she shared with me suggestions to implement the program with my class.
I know she also worked for the Honor's program, won the Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching, traveled with her students. I am in owe of her accomplishments, the more I read about Vanessa.
The department has lost a great colleague, and the world has lost a wonderful human being.
My sincere condolences to all her family and friends.
Kazue Masuyama
May 26, 2025
Dr. Vanessa Arnaud touched each of us in profound and lasting ways. It was a true privilege to know her and work alongside her for over twenty years. She led numerous projects with remarkable dedication, expertise, and her ever-present smile. I especially want to acknowledge her exceptional contributions to World Languages Day-a reflection of her passion for language, culture, and community. Vanessa was truly brilliant, insightful, and radiated beauty inside and out. I deeply miss her warmth, kindness, and grace-qualities that were beautifully expressed in her own words: "We see the world only with the heart." This simple yet powerful truth-spoken during World Languages Day 2015, an event honoring France after the Paris attacks-beautifully captures the compassion and humanity she brought to every aspect of her life and work. Vanessa appears at the 2:58 mark in this short video, offering a glimpse of the thoughtful presence we all came to admire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfA-J0r96rA&t=145s
Sandy Silva
May 26, 2025
My memories of Vanessa Arnaud were of her younger years...
Vanessa had a loving focused personality and excelled in academics, school activities, gymnastics and diving.
Her friends knew she would attain significant achievements and accomplishments in her life.
She left a lasting legacy and will be forever loved and dearly missed.
She left us too soon!
Italy
May 26, 2025
My heartfelt condolences go to Vanessa's family. Vanessa was a joy to work with at Sac State. She was always cheerful and constructive. I enjoyed chatting with her for brief but always stimulating conversations on her research, teaching, France, and family, etc. She will be greatly missed. Barbara Carle, Professor emerita of Italian, CSUS
Lisa Fernandes Froines
May 25, 2025
I´m so very sorry to hear about Vanessa. We were in leadership together for several years at Las Lomas high school. She always had a kind and intelligent energy. I´m so very sorry for your loss, and will be holding her memory in my heart. Sending love and comfort to her family and friends.
Sébastien Renault
May 25, 2025
In remembering you, dear Vanessa, I will share here with family and friends one key aspect of who you are and what you have meant to me throughout the years. To do so, I will now switch to addressing whoever will kindly read this message, while also maintaining, beyond the veil that separates this present world to the age to be, our open-ended conversation-which I´m grateful we were able to pick up where we had left it off through a fair amount of stimulating correspondence, however irregularly, these past 8 months or so of painful struggle you so edifyingly underwent...
Upon reading the obituary, I found myself reflecting on what stays with me the most, what especially rings true to me about Vanessa, namely: her purity of heart. A quality all the more striking if one considers its discouraging short supply in today´s world... It is what has most drawn me to developing the deep and special affection I have had for her. She always reciprocated it through a kind of resonance that precisely echoed and intimated within me the joy of knowing that it was assuredly there, truly characteristic of her.
Over more than 30 years of knowing her-as extended family and as an intellectual friend and conversationist-I have been moved by the clarity of her kindness, the honesty of her spirit, and the rare gentleness with which she met the world (it occurs to me, in writing these words, that her distinct purity of heart allowed her to achieve this quite simply, despite the challenges and hostilities the world, by contrast to purity of heart, is notoriously never short of). It all came from a quiet integrity that never needed to announce itself. I very much like a saying of St. Francis de Sales (among many others worth meditating on), which seems to me to be fitting Vanessa quite well: "Noise does little good, good makes little noise..."
I consider it a lasting privilege to have known her in this transient life; and I carry forward the connection that Providence allowed for our souls to have, however sparse the opportunities to meet in person...
For indeed the soul, the proper ontological form of the body, is not subjected to the extinction of the latter´s biological collapse. And, given the natural unity that brings the two together in the first place, bodies will indeed rise and take on the immortality of the souls they each uniquely belong to. Death is a passage we are bound to undergo. Vanessa has now preceded us through it. She will accordingly see us on the other side, when we too end our own fleeting course in this evanescent world.
My deepest and sincerest condolences to Vanessa´s closest family, husband, children, parents, sister...
Jessica
May 24, 2025
Sending love and my sincere condolences to Vanessa´s family. I have many wonderful memories of time spent with Vanessa during high school.
Jeanette Victoria Sweet
May 24, 2025
I went to Las Lomas High School amd graduated with Vanessa in 1989. She was a very kind person, intelligent and a very nice person ans friend. She tutored me for a time and I remember we always enjoyed our times in amd out of class. My heart goes to her family and friends during this difficult time. My thoughts and prayers are with you and I pray you will feel comfort and love from above when it is so hard to understand. My sincerest condolences.
Sincerely, Jeanette Victoria Sweet
Marianne Alsmann-Nemeth
May 24, 2025
Vanessa,
We loved you in life and shall never forget you in death. You continue to live in our hearts through the wonderful memories we forged in life.
Having danced at your wedding, I knew you primarily through your Mom-my beloved friend-sister. Through her I got to know you as the sweet, kind and caring daughter you were to your parents and the fiercely devoted Mom you had been to your children. The brilliant French professor you had become and your love of teaching your students. Your parents were extremely proud of you and your achievements. Losing you has incredibly saddened your husband, Alfie, Sarah, your parents, extended family and everyone who has ever known you. May you rest in peace and sparkle as that bright star in the dreamy evening sky.
My heartfelt condolences to Vanessa´s family.
Marianne
Marianne
May 24, 2025
Vanessa,
We loved you in life and shall never forget you in death! You will continue to live in our hearts through the wonderful memories we have woven throughout our lifetime. Your grace and sweet generosities, your gentle humor and especially your devotion to your family and your parents-my treasured friends-have touched each of us in so many special ways. For me you will forever be that bright and shiny star in the dreamy evening sky.
My deepest condolences to your grieving family, your inconsolable parents and your extended family.
Marianne
Stuart and Hilda Gallant
May 24, 2025
We are so very sorry for Vanessa's passing and although we didn't know her personally, we knew of her many successes and accomplishments through her parents, Bruce and Janine and her devotion to her family. May her memory be a source of inspiration to the entire family forever.
Marion and Lou Lipofsky
May 23, 2025
To know Vanessa was a privilege. Her accomplishments dim compared to her warmth and love of family. Much Love, Lou and Marion
Kim (Candau) Rogers
May 23, 2025
I am so incredibly saddened to hear about Vanessa's passing. She and I were high school cheerleaders together as well as friends. Sending my deepest condolences to your family during this difficult time.
Rpin Suwannath
May 23, 2025
So sorry to hear about this. We were high school friends.
Lynnette Y Dejesus
May 23, 2025
A beautiful woman inside and out.
Isella Nepomuceno
May 22, 2025
I had the distinguished honor of having her as a professor. I am saddened to hear that she is no longer with us, but she will always be remembered in our hearts.
Sue Keefer
May 22, 2025
Janine, I hope you remember the Keefer family - I was Laurie´s sister in law. I was touched and saddened reading of Vanessa´s remarkable life. Sending my sincerest condolences will be keeping you and your family in my prayers. Sue Keefer
Dan Ortego
May 22, 2025
My heartfelt condolence to the family of this beautiful spirit whom I never had the chance and shear delight of meeting. Sometimes a picture and others' description opens a place in our heart that we just have to share the joy of having witnessed. I think that is what those who knew her experienced. To Vanessa, happy travels in the afterlife.
Coincidently, my surname is a common Cajun French name in southern LA.
Natalie Muñoz
May 22, 2025
Vanessa was the kindest, funniest, and most supportive friend I have ever known. The void in my heart is enormous. She is irreplaceable. My continued love and support are with her family.
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