Early Years and Education
Picard was born to Romain Picard and Evangeline Picard (1912–1990). He grew up on the grounds of Maurice High School because his father was the principal, and the Vermilion Parish School Board provided housing as part of the compensation. As a boy, Picard often gazed into the windows of the school, and although he was still too young to attend classes, he wondered what was happening inside the building. Despite his misgivings about a career in education, Picard graduated from Maurice High School and thereafter procured a bachelor's degree in upper elementary education program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then Southwestern Louisiana Institute and later the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He obtained a Master of Arts degree in school administration from Sam Houston State University (then Teacher's College) in Huntsville, Texas.
In 1959, Picard began his educational career as a teacher at LeBlanc Elementary School in Erath in Vermilion Parish. He became a teacher/coach at Maurice High School in 1962. When his father died in 1969, Picard was named principal of Maurice High School, a position that he held for the following eleven years.
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