Cecil J. Picard - Picard's Legacy

Picard's Legacy

Former state Representative Jimmy D. Long of Natchitoches, the chairman of the University of Louisiana System board of supervisors, headed the House Education Committee when Picard was chairman of the corresponding Senate committee. He said that the two developed a working and friendly relationship. "Cecil and I authored a raft of education reform," Long said in his eulogy.

According to Long, Picard was comfortable with himself, and it showed. . . . He told me, 'People believe honesty, and they're not easily misled,' which is how he led his life. . . . Cecil could get things done. His political legacy is he made sure Louisiana's children have the opportunity for a better education."

The family requested that Picard be remembered through memorial contributions to the Cecil Picard Endowment Fund to benefit the eponymous Cecil J. Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning at his alma mater, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Picard was succeeded as education superintendent by Paul Pastorek, who was retained by the board in 2008, with the support of Republican Governor Bobby Jindal, but has since left the post.

In 2006, Picard was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.