Education
Paul M. Hebert Law Center.
Paul M. Hebert Law Center.
However, he changed his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican during the Ronald Reagan presidency. Born in Rayne in Acadia Parish in South Louisiana, Dugas was one of eight children of Ulysse and Louise Dugas. He was reared in Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish.
A Roman Catholic, Dugas received his Bachelor of Arts from Southern Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville and his Bachelor of Laws from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
From 1943 to 1946, he served in the United States Navy. He was affiliated with the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Kiwanis International.
From 1956 to 1960, during the administration of Governor Earl Kemp Long, Dugas served for a single term in the Louisiana House of Representatives from Lafourche Parish. Both Kennon and Dugas lost their respective races.
The governorship went to John McKeithen of Columbia in Caldwell Parish in north Louisiana.
The lieutenant governorship to incumbent Taddy Aycock, also a former Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Franklin in Saint Mary Parish in south Louisiana. The Dugas" third daughter, Celeste, died at birth in 1964. Dugas died in 2008 at the age of eighty-nine in Thibodaux and is interred at Saint Joseph Cemetery at 949 Menard Saint in Thibodaux.
In 1963, Dugas ran for lieutenant governor on the intraparty ticket of a Long opponent, former Governor Robert F. Kennon, formerly of Minden in Webster Parish in North Louisiana.