Picard's family creates endowment
Fund will support UL center named after late state superintendent
Alexandria Burris
aburris@theadvertiser.com

The family of Cecil Picard has established an endowment in honor of the life and career of the late state Superintendent of Education.
Picard, who dedicated his life to education, died Feb. 15 at the age of 69. He had Lou Gehrig's disease.




Picard's son Tyron said the endowment will support the Cecil Picard Center for Child Development, which is being constructed at UL.

"It's very comforting to continue, in a very small and token way, to pursue the cause of improving education in Louisiana to which he dedicated his whole life," Tyron Picard said.
The endowment, which is under the direction of The Community Foundation of Acadiana, received up to $20,000 in donations in the four days after the late superintendent's funeral, he said.

Raymond Hebert, executive director of the Community Foundation of Acadiana, said the endowment, which will exclusively benefit the center, is now nearing $30,000.

"Cecil Picard played an instrumental role in making this center come to fruition," Hebert said. "The family thought this would be the most appropriate way to honor his memory by establishing a fund that perpetually benefited that center."

The center will provide research to school districts across the nation, the younger Picard said.

It will perform data analysis on children that would measure child development and education.

Groundbreaking for the center is expected to take place in two or three months, he said.

One notable donation came from President Bush and his wife Laura, Hebert said.

The foundation received a $1,000 check from the first family Thursday, Hebert said.

President Bush, who was a friend of Cecil Picard, visited with the Picards for 10 minutes while he was in New Orleans on March 1, Tyron Picard said.

Bush acknowledged Picard's passing in a speech at the Samuel J. Green Charter School in New Orleans.