Foreign the Louisiana former state representative from Lafourche Parish, see Dick Guidry.
Education
Born in Gueyden, Louisiana, on October 18, 1949, Guidry (who referred to himself as “Le gros Cadien," or The Big Cajun) attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette), where he obtained a bachelor"s degree in French and Spanish, and a master"s degree in French Education.
Career
Richard Guidry was a Cajun cultural activist and educator who worked to save the French language in Louisiana. He subsequently taught French in Saint Martin Parish, Louisiana, before working for the Louisiana Department of Education as Education Programs Coordinator in Foreign Languages and Bilingual Education (Region IV). In this post he introduced Louisiana French into the French education curriculum — a major advance considering the social stigma formerly attached to speaking the state"s French dialects.
Richard taught Cajun French at his alma mater, where he served as an adjunct faculty member, and worked as a co-editor and consultant on the Dictionary of French as Spoken in Louisiana.
Guidry died July 27, 2008, in Lafayette, Louisiana.