Malcolm P. Hebert

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Malcolm P. Hebert

Malcolm Paul Hebert, Sr. (October 25, 1926 -- September 23, 2006), was a mechanical engineer who served from 1973-1977 as the last elected streets and parks commissioner of Alexandria, a central Louisiana city of nearly 50,000 population and the seat of Rapides Parish. While on the commission city council, Hebert (pronounced A BEAR) supervised the repair and upgrading of municipal streets and sewer operations. He also encouraged youth sports programs and worked to expand and improve the Alexandria Zoo, a small but impressive facility that draws visitors from throughout central Louisiana. He once even cared for several abandoned lion cubs and a monkey in his own home.

[edit] Early years, education, military

Hebert was born in Monroe to Maxime Paul Hebert and the former Linda Talbot. The family moved to Alexandria, where he lived most of his life. In 1943, he graduated form the Catholic Menard Memorial High School, having played football and served as a drum major. After high school, he became an apprentice machinist for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. He was a member of the International Association of Machinists union.

Thereafter, Hebert enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II and volunteered for submarine service. He served aboard the USS Ling and completed studies in Naval Diesel Training School in Gulfport, Mississippi, and the Submarine School in New London, Connecticut, where he was also certified in "Submarine Diesel Hydraulics and Damage Control".

After his honorable discharge from the Navy, he began post-secondary studies. He first attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he was initiated into Sigma Chi national fraternity. However, he graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then the Southwestern Louisiana Institute, with a degree in engineering. He played first base on the 1950 SLI Gulf States Championship baseball team. He was a lifetime member of the Louisiana Football Officials Association, with more than a quarter century of service. He coached an American Legion baseball team, and was twice named to the All-State softball team. Even after suffering a debilitating stroke in 1980, Hebert continued coaching with St. Mary’s Training School, an institution for the mentally retarded in Alexandria. In 1985, his teams won state Tee ball and softball championships. He supported Dixie Youth baseball and softball and the Menard High School teams, on which his son and three grandsons played.

[edit] Alexandria City Hall

Hebert received recognition in three national publications for his groundbreaking design of a cost effective and practical solution to re-lining water and sewer pipes in Monroe. Prior to entering public service, Hebert practiced for some twenty-five years with Roland Construction Co. in Alexandria, where he served as company treasurer and vice president.

In 1973, Hebert unseated incumbent Streets and Parks Commissioner O'Hearn Mathews (1923-1975) in the Democratic runoff primary. No Republican filed for the streets and parks post or for any other Alexandria city office. Therefore, Governor Edwin Washington Edwards cancelled the municipal general election, and Hebert became the automatic winner as streets and parks commissioner. Hebert was helped in the race from public discontent with the lack of unity in the outgoing administration of Mathews and his council colleagues, then Mayor Charles Edward "Ed" Karst and Finance and Utilities Commissioner Carroll E. Lanier.

Joining Hebert on the council were John Kenneth Snyder, Sr. as mayor and Arnold Jack Rosenthal ( as finance and utilities commissioner. Hebert hired John R. Knox, Jr., as his administrative assistant, with Gwen Ryland as his secretary. Under the then Alexandria commission form of government, Hebert, along with Snyder and Rosenthal, acted as a "legislator" by voting on city resolutions and ordinances in city council meetings. He also supervised the streets and parks departments in the role of an "executive."

At times, Hebert joined Snyder to form a 2-1 governing majority on the council, with Rosenthal often left in the minority. In 1974, Hebert and Snyder joined forces to remove Rosenthal's own selected administrative assistant, Floyd W. Smith, Jr., former mayor of Pineville, a smaller city across the Red River from Alexandria. The bickering on the council , which had plagued the earlier administration as well, contributed to the defeats of both Snyder and Rosenthal when they ran against each other for the new mayor's position in 1977.

The streets and parks position was abolished with the 1977 municipal elections, as the city went to a mayor-council form of government -- an executive mayor and a council from single-member districts. In 1977, Hebert did not seek a council position. He was instead tapped by the new mayor, Carroll Lanier, as the director of the newly-established Department of Public Works. Lanier, who was defeated by Rosenthal in 1973, scored a huge comeback and derailed Snyder's bid for a second consecutive mayoral term. Hebert then served in the public works position until his stroke. He retired from city service in 1981.

At the time of his passing, he was survived by his wife of over 55 years, the former Mary Patricia "Pat" Morgan; his son a Malcolm Paul Hebert, Jr., and daughters Paulette Ryland, Tommie Hebert, and Renee Gutierrez, and Deborrah Hebert