Interviewer: Jacob Campbell

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Mr. Monteiro was referred by Bill Ellzey, who described him as a major contractor and businessman in the region for the past forty years. We met at his house on Bayou Black west of Houma. He was living in the small house on the front of the property, because a fraudulent woman had offered to buy the massive house on the back of the sizable acreage, causing the old man to move his furniture out while his wife was dying; but the woman had no money and forged bank notes. Mr. Monteiro is a dynamic and mercurial person, having tried many different oil-related ventures through his long career in the area, some which succeeded and other went bankrupt. He was very active in the community during the 70s and 80s, serving on the chamber of commerce, numerous boards, and running a boy-scout troop. He continues to work despite failing health, mostly on small engineering contracts.

Mr. Monteiro was born 1927 in New Orleans. His father was a civil engineer. John got an engineering degree from LSU in 1952. Before going to college he was in the Army during the final years of WWII. During college, he worked summers for McDermott on pilings barges on the Gulf coast, and the California Co., now Chevron. He met his wife during one of these summers; she was a Houma native, and they moved to Houma permanently in 1953. Shortly afterwards he took an engineering job with Schlumberger, which he held until 1962, mostly working in shallow water offshore. He then worked for Houma Valves in sales, later for Lane Wells as logging manager, before starting his own companies. Mr. Monteiro, with his sons, operated companies ranging from construction, to boat building, to air transport, to measurement, to engineering consulting. In 1985 he went bankrupt and has never fully recovered. This interview is full of opinion and slander, but is rich as a look into the project period in Houma.