Dr. Corbett LeBouef, 2004 Humanitarian of the Year

The Louisiana Cattle Festival Association will honor a local physician and cattleman, Corbett J. LeBouef, Jr., M.D., of Perry, as Humanitarian of the Year during its 56^th annual festival set for October 1-3 in Abbeville. The life of this year’s honoree reveals that he has combined a love for the cattle industry, as well as his love for the medical profession, with amazing success.

Continuing in his family’s tradition, Dr. LeBouef has proudly raised commercial grade cattle since 1980, with the addition of Braeford cattle four years ago. His late father, Corbett Joseph LeBouef, Sr., was a farmer and a cattleman, who sold milk from house to house before the Vermilion Creamery became effective. His mother, the late Relia Marie Frederick LeBouef, was a homemaker who raised several children.

Professional Career

For forty years, Dr. LeBouef has served Vermilion Parish as assistant coroner. Since 1964, he has been a member of the Vermilion Parish Medical Society, the Louisiana State Medical Society, the American Medical Society, and the American Academy of Family Practice.

As a member of the Vermilion Parish Medical Society, he has held the offices of president in 1971, vice president in 1970, and secretary of treasure, in 1969 and 1976.

At Abbeville General Hospital, LeBouef has served as Institutional Review Committee Chairman from 1980 to 2004, as well as Section Chief of General Practice in 1984. He served as Chief of Staff in 1974, 1982, 1994, and 1995, being the only doctor to serve two years in a row, and he served as Vice Chief of Staff in 1973, 1981, and 1993. In 1984, he served as Section Chief of General Practice. The AGH Medical Executive Committee saw him serve in 1991, 1996, and from 1997 until 2003.

In addition, LeBouef served Abbeville General Hospital as Chief of the Medicine Department in 1991 and from 1996 until 2003. He was Chairman of the Pharmacy Committee from 1990-95. LeBouef was also a board member of Vermilion Rehabilitation Hospital from 1999 until 2003 and a board member of Abbeville General Hospital, District #2, Board of Commissions, from 2000-04.

In his own Family Practice, LeBouef has served as an associate professor, preceptorship, for LSU School of Medicine from 1981-84, and in 1999, 2000, and 2001.

Education and Military Service

Amazingly, Dr. LeBouef’s life began in 1938 in a most unlikely manner.

“Mother, during the three-month gestation – since it had been 10 years since her last pregnancy – was referred to Charity Hospital in New Orleans for the removal of a uterine tumor. She was operated,” Dr. LeBouef explained. “However, she was three to four months pregnant. I was born five to six months later by C-section.”

At the age of three, the young LeBouef knew he wanted to be a doctor and maintained this desire throughout his life.

“I’ve had a dream come true.”

At age five, he started first grade at Perry Junior High, and, during his schooling there, was a member of the Boy Scouts of America, achieving majority merits for the rank of Eagle Scout.

At age 12, LeBouef attended 9^th grade at Abbeville High School but transferred the following year to Mount Carmel Academy, where he was a member of the famous “Iron Dozen” football team.

In 1956, at the age of 16, LeBouef began pre-med studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he completed his undergraduate studies in just three years. During his freshman and sophomore years, while in the Air Force ROTC, he was a member of the Honorary Saber Air Command.

In 1959, at the age of 19, LeBouef was admitted to LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans, where he graduated in 1963. The following year, he interned at Charity Hospital in New Orleans where the Intern Committee elected him secretary-treasurer.

In 1964, at the age of 24, LeBouef began a Family Practice in Abbeville which he faithfully maintained until October 2003, at which time he retired following a disability.

“I delivered more than 2,000 babies,” he said. And, during the doctor’s early practice, he worked for two years at the old Palms Hospital, now the site of the new Abbeville Branch of the Parish Library.

From 1963 until 1969, LeBouef served in the Louisiana National Guard, 256^th Infantry, and achieved the rank of major on retirement. From 1965 until 2003, he served as Aviation Medical Examiner for the Federal Aviation Agency.

In 1959, LeBouef married the former Nancy LeBlanc, who died in 1980. They had two children: Lisa Oliver (1961), and Corbett “Cobb” J. Lebouef, III, (1966). Lisa has two children: Danielle, age 14, and Don, age 10. Cobb also has two children, Corbett “Chip” LeBouef, IV, age 14, and Leah, age 7.

In 1983, LeBouef married Kathleen Budd, a psycho-social therapist, who has now offered psychological therapeutic services for 34 years. She has one daughter, Vanessa Teicher, and three grandchildren, T.J., age 7; Tate, age 5; and Jenna, age 3.

Since 1964, LeBouef has been a member of the Louisiana Tarpon Club, serving as president in 1979.

While maintaining his Family Practice, Dr. LeBouef was not without his own personal injuries – including a broken neck in 1991, a horse-riding accident resulting in nine broken ribs and two broken vertebrae in 1995, and a broken leg after falling from a tree in 1999 – nonetheless, he remained dedicated to his own patients’ needs, and even worked from a wheelchair. When the doors of his office closed last year – to the shock and sadness of the local community – Dr. LeBouef’s medical practice had more than 40,000 active clients.

Now, however, Dr. LeBouef continues to serve the community he loves as a Hospice Physician Volunteer. His life, and practice, it seems has come full circle.

“For the first 40 and-a-half years, I worked to save lives or to improve their living conditions,” he said. “Since my disability, I have helped people and families deal with terminal illness.”

On the sensitive subject of mortality, a reality that all humanity must ultimately face, this cattleman and physician is calmly reflective, asserting that he has had, in fact, many lives and “a dream come true.”

For these reasons and more, the Louisiana Cattle Festival Association is proud to honor Dr. Corbett J. LeBouef, Jr. as their 2004 Humanitarian of the Year.