Age: 67
Why do you do what you do?
It drives me. No pun intended.
What is your greatest professional accomplishment?
Passage of Right to Work (1976) the first year of LABI and my first session as a lobbyist. LADA – Passage of the Streamline Repossession Law to provide more credit for low wage earners.
What was your first job?
Newspaper route at age 12. Warehouse worker at a building supply store at age 14, and paper mill summers throughout college.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
Character is when you do the right thing when no one is looking.
Who do you most admire in the local business community and why?
If I pick one, I would make too many others unhappy.
If you could have any job other than your own, what would it be?
U. S. Senator
What is the greatest personal or professional obstacle you have overcome?
I drank too much until 1988.
If you started over, what would you do differently?
All things considered, I have been very blessed.
What is your prescription for life?
Take every adventure that comes your way. Life is not a dress rehearsal. As you get older try to expand your life do not shrink it.
What book are you currently reading?
None now, but my favorite book is Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose.
If you could have dinner with any three living people, who would they be? (Authors? Leaders?)
Benjamin Franklin, Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Twain. Oops, they are not living. Maybe that says something about me or maybe it says something about the world today or maybe it says something about the people I have been dining with lately.
Who would play you in a movie?
Perhaps the new Alec Baldwin, someone who can make fun of himself.
What do you do to unwind?
I can really space out when I mow my lawn or go on long rides alone on my bike.
What is the most expensive purchase you’ve made for yourself?
My Rolex watch. I bought it for $200 when I was the manager of a jewelry store in 1970 but it is worth a lot more now.
What is your favorite weekend activity?
Anything outdoors- Yard work, golf, swim, hike, hunt but not fishing.
What’s your theme song?
The National Anthem and America the Beautiful
What’s your favorite spot in Baton Rouge?
The Capitol and my back yard.
How do you take your coffee/tea?
Community Coffee, half decaffeinate, strong, one splenda and a little whole milk.
What is your favorite movie? TV show?
Movies – Casablanca, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein. T.V. – Modern Family and CBS Sunday Morning.
What is your favorite gadget?
I collect pocket knives and fountain pens but as for gadgets it would be the special tools I buy for my workshop and never use.
What is something that you can’t live without?
My children and granddaughter.
If you could change one thing about Baton Rouge, what would it be?
I grew up in Bogalusa where my dad was Superintendent of the public school system. Every kid went to public schools regardless of economic or social status. I know there are many fine private schools in Baton Rouge and many good reasons for them. I served on the Board of St. James Episcopal Elementary and there are none finer. However, all the benefits my children and I derived from our public school education, were not academic.
What is your greatest hope for Baton Rouge?
Leaders from across all elements of our society: business, education, law enforcement, religious, and civic can come together to understand that without education, quality of life cannot be improve, without quality of life the economy cannot improve, without decent living conditions violence and crime cannot be controlled. Without peace and prosperity for all, the peace and prosperity of the many is not secure.
What is your greatest fear for Baton Rouge?
The sins of the past and the failures of the present will continue to block progress. Let’s just all make one big apology and get on with it.
My biggest personal fear is that you did not ask me one question for which the answer is “My wife Deanne is the most important person and I could never be here without her.”
