NOLA Propeller Club Honors Landry

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry was awarded the Maritime Person of the Year award by the New Orleans Propeller Club at a gala held September 17 at the Higgins Hotel. Hartson Hammon, club president, presented the award.

It was the first time the New Orleans Propeller Club has made the award to a Louisiana governor.

Sean Duffy, executive director of the Big River Coalition and a former club president, said there was no other person to consider for the award this year.

“Gov. Landry established the first Maritime Task Force since Edwin Edwards’ last term in 1992, when my father, George Duffy, served as the chairman,” Duffy said. “That former task force was an important tool for developing a true maritime priority list for the state. I suggested, as did others, that reestablishing a similar task force would be very helpful for creating a confirmed request list. Gov. Landry, of course, went a step further with the creation of the Louisiana Ports and Waterways Investment Commission. As is typical with Gov. Landry, he took the idea and improved on it.

“Gov. Landry also funded, through the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, increases to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Systems (PORTS) that will fund new air gap sensors on the bridges that cross the Mississippi River Ship Channel,” Duffy continued. “The first new sensor, a current meter on the Southwest Pass Sea Buoy, was installed a few months ago, and the first new air gap sensor is scheduled to be installed in November. These are the first new PORTS sensors on the ship channel since 2009.”

Landry set up the Louisiana Ports and Waterways Investment Commission in 2024 to serve as an advocate for the state’s ports and waterways. The goal was to get the state’s port authorities to work together—while also competing—for investment dollars.

That commission played a large role in securing the recently announced $5.8 billion Hyundai Steel plant, which will be located on the Mississippi River near Donaldsonville, La.

Focus On Education

Landry said he believes voters in the state elected him to bring Louisiana “off the statistical bottom.”

One way he hopes to accomplish progress for the state is by focusing on the importance of the maritime industry, bringing that focus to all levels of education, attracting more employees into the maritime industry and training them.

“My commitment to this industry is unwavering from K through 12th grade,” Landry said.

Landry mentioned training at both Nunez Community College and Delgado Community College, and he said he is committed to establishing four-year maritime degrees at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La. Capt. Kelly Denning, former commander of Coast Guard Sector New Orleans, has been named the first executive director of the Universities of Louisiana Maritime Academy. Denning retired from the Coast Guard about a year ago.

While Landry has been in office, the state has received commitments for $70 billion in development, with the governor giving credit, in part, to President Donald Trump’s policies. Business investment will affect ”all corners of the state,” Landry said, including $10 billion in north Louisiana and the Venture Global LNG export facility near Myrtle Grove, La., on the Lower Mississippi River.

Landry noted the significance of the hotel venue at the National WWII Museum, named for Louisiana’s own Andrew Higgins, who developed the landing craft used during the Pacific campaigns and D-Day in Europe. The governor quoted Gen. Dwight Eisenhower as attributing victory in World War II in large part to Higgins and his landing craft.

Growing up in rural south Louisiana, Landry said he watched boat and shipbuilding businesses flourish. The industry supplied many middle-class families with good jobs, he said, but in recent years many of those businesses have “deteriorated before our eyes.”

Landry recounted how a great uncle of his had an opportunity to invest in Mr. Charley, the first offshore drilling platform, but passed because he did not believe offshore drilling would be successful. That drilling rig and south Louisiana shipyards proved to be the forerunners of the booming oil and gas business in Louisiana, “which supplies much of the nation’s energy needs.”

He cited a book by Woody Falgout titled “The Rise of the Cajun Mariner,” which traces development of the oil and gas industry in south Louisiana.

“We don’t do enough to tell the great story of what the oil and gas industry has done for Louisiana and the unbelievable contribution to this country,” he said.

Reflecting on his time in Congress, Landry said he sought out committee assignments that would benefit “those who bet on me,” including natural resources development and Coast Guard oversight. He also said the strategic importance of New Orleans and the Mississippi River dates back hundreds of years and should not be overlooked.

“The British recognized it,” Landry said, adding the frontier’s westward movement began at the Mississippi River. “You can’t move goods and services into middle America without passing through New Orleans.”

With all the uncertainty and risk inherent in investment, business can look to Louisiana and say, “They have it, and they are going to have it right,” Landry said. “In the next 10 years, we will write the story of success like never before.”

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Featured photo caption: Sean Duffy (right) presents the New Orleans Propeller Club’s Maritime Person of the Year award to Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry. (Photo by Tracie Morris Schaefer)