Interviewer(s): T. McGuire. Galliano, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Ted Falgout, executive director of Port Fourchon, was one of our first contacts in south Louisiana, when we began the baseline study in 1997. We have tried to maintain contact with him and his assistant, Davey Breaux, during subsequent trips. The interview took place at his office. Much of the interview focused on the history of the port, from the formative efforts of Senator Rappelet to the countercycle expansion in the 1980's, when oil companies made strategic decisions to consolidate their operations at the port.

After graduating in fisheries biology from what was then the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Ted Falgout got a job with LSU as the first Marine Advisory Agent in the state. This was a new program being tested by the Sea Grant Program in cooperation with the cooperative Extension Service. Working with fisheries in Lafourche, Terrebonne and St. Mary's Parishes, Ted got to know the port commissioners for Port Fourchon, who convinced him to serve as the port's executive director. He has presided over the expansion of the port into a primary staging area for deepwater oil and gas operations. He and his brother Errol run an alligator farm above the Intracoastal Waterway in Larose.