High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Alphonse Francois Renard (27 September 1842–9 July 1903), Belgian geologist and petrographer, was born at Ronse, in East Flanders, on 27 September 1842. He was educated for the church of Rome, and from 1866 to 1869 he was superintendent at the College de la Paix, Namur.