Dick Guidry Being Inducted Into Hall Of Fame
Richard Guidry of Galliano, Louisiana in Lafourche Parish was first elected to a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1950 at the age of 21 and became the youngest person to serve in the House. Dick Guidry, as his local constituents called him, initially spent four years in the House. Being a very rural parish, Lafourche had many needs in the 1950s and Dick worked hard to improve the lives of his constituents. He successfully developed a way to get freshwater from the Mississippi River into Bayou Lafourche and local water treatment facilities - thus providing clean, fresh water to homes in the Lafourche country. Residents no longer had to rely on the unstable supply of rainwater into their cisterns and the potential diseases this could entail. He also was able to get funds to replace the aging ferries with good quality bridges across Bayou Lafourche - important to residents of the many communities that built up on both sides of the bayou.
Dick decided not to run for his house seat again in 1955. He then spent ten years in oilfield work where he witnessed the beginning of the devastation of the coastal marshes by the many canals and pipelines being constructed throughout the marshes. He returned to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1964 after a ten-year break to work for his people. Immediately he went to work to have the South Lafourche Levee District created. In 1968 he saw his efforts come to fruition. Already the marshes were being lost in southern Lafourche parish with the potential for significant flooding and increased intensity of hurricanes.
Many thought it impossible to build a protection levee completely across southern Lafourche Parish, but not Dick. The levee was built and has protected the residents of southern Lafourche Parish for over three decades. Testament to its effectiveness was in 2005 when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita slammed into southern Louisiana. Residents of neighboring parishes spent months recovering from the devastating floodwaters, but Lafourche Parish, protected by the levees, suffered little flood damage. During his ten-year term Dick also created two hospital districts in the parish and obtained significant construction funds for Nichols State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana.
Richard Guidry's foresight in the 1950s and 1960s benefitted not only Lafourche Parish, but also the entire state as many of his ideas led to future improvements throughout Louisiana. Dick Guidry retired from the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1976 and today lives with his wife in Galliano, Louisiana.