A funeral Mass will be held at 3 p.m. Friday at Sacred Heart Church in Broussard for the former state lawmaker, education superintendent, businessman and active community volunteer.
Funeral services are set for 3 p.m. Friday at Sacred Heart Church in Broussard for Louis Michot Jr., the former state representative from Lafayette who will be remembered as much for his civic engagement as he will for his long list of business ventures and legislative accomplishments.
Michot, 89, died at a Lafayette hospital Tuesday.
The father of former state Sen. Mike Michot, Louis Michot served for four years as a state representative from 1960-1964 and was a gubernatorial candidate in 1963. In 1967 he was elected to the state Board of Education, where he served another four years until he won a statewide race and became state superintendent of education in 1972.
Among his proudest achievements in education were the seeds he planted for the state's vocational and technical school system, as well as the start-up funds the state provided for La. Educational TV, now Louisiana Public Broadcasting (LPB).
The 1939 Cathedral High School graduate and World War II veteran first ventured into the business world when he built a drive-thru movie theater in Lafayette, the start of a long and diverse list of enterprises that include, among others, real estate development, 45 Burger Chef fast food restaurants, offshore and marine construction, textile manufacturing in Mexico and cattle ranching in Central America.
Locally, Michot served as executive vice president and general manager of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce in the early 50s and shortly after helped to found Louisiana Gulf Coast Oil Exposition, the annual oil and gas industry expo that has gotten bigger and better every year since its inception.
He also served on the founding boards of directors for Bank of Lafayette and the International Trade Development Group.
But his civic service reached beyond the confines of the Pelican State, as Michot will also be remembered as a past president of the National Aerospace Education Association and past international President of the International Good Neighbor Council, which works to better relations between citizens of the U.S. and Mexico.
Visit www.delhommefuneralhome.com for more on Michot's family, civic life and service arrangements.