Career
He wrote approximately 9700 installments of his column “Pie Dufour’s A Louisiana Mode” for the States-Item and for the Sunday edition of the New Orleans Times-Picayune during his newspaper tenure, from 1949 until his retirement in 1978. He authored 20 books and approximately 50 articles for scholarly literature. Dufour’s column covered diverse topics including Louisiana history, New Orleans Mardi Gras, law, local sports, classical music, New Orleans cuisine, and European traveling
Dufour lived his entire life in New Orleans, except to serve in the United States Army in World World War II in a non-journalistic role.
He enrolled at Tulane University for college in 1921, although he commenced his career with newspapers before completing his degree. He ultimately completed his college degree in 1953.
Dufour was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by Tulane University in 1978, after retiring as a newspaper columnist. Together with fellow local historian John Churchill Chase, he taught a course on New Orleans history at Tulane University for 25 years.
Dufour referred to this course as "New Orleans on the Half Shell" as an acknowledgement of its emphasis on food and culture.
A 1967 New York Times article characterized Dufour as a columnist and historian "who has devoted most of his professional life to the idea that history is news".