Interviewer(s): T. McGuire. Golden Meadow, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Ronald Callais is a regular at PJ's in Golden Meadow for early morning coffee. The last time out, he agreed to talk, and also gave me the name of Mr. Web Callais (TM034), his uncle. I interviewed him in his office at the shipyard, an office well-stocked with novels (James Lee Burke, among them), with walls filled with official certificates, marking perhaps his service on Lafourche Parish's Police Jury and his membership on the Levee Board. He admitted that he is semi-retired from the shipyard business (started in 1980), though he comes in to the office, often just to read. This yard, and another in Larose, is run by his son exclusively do repair work, including much work for the shrimp industry. After the interview, we toured the yard. Several utility boats and tugs being worked on, and he talked about plans for expanding the yard.

Ronald graduated from high school in 1959, then went to USL (SLI at the time) for accounting, then transferred to Nicholls. At one time, Ronald was also involved in the utility boat business of his father (Abdon Callais), but he got out of that end of it when it was clear that the two enterprises were in conflict: he was repairing the boats that competed with the boat business.