Judge H. Charles Gaudin

Judge Homere Charles Gaudin, an esteemed judge who served on district and appellate courts for over three decades and as former Chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, passed away on June 29, 2019, just two weeks before his 89th birthday on July 14, Bastille Day, surrounded by his family. Friends and family will remember Judge Gaudin as being gentle, kind, gracious and wise. People were drawn to his inner calm, warm smile and dry wit.

Judge Gaudin was born in New Orleans in 1930 and grew up in Covington. He graduated from St. Paul’s High School in 1947 and attended Louisiana State University before graduating from University of Louisiana at Lafayette (formerly University of Southwestern Louisiana) in 1952 with a BA in English and History.

Gaudin graduated from Loyola College of Law with a juris doctor in 1958 where he was a moot court finalist, an editor of the university newspaper, The Maroon, and a member of Delta Theta Phi national legal fraternity. Following the family tradition, he joined his uncles, Felix Gaudin and Hilary Gaudin in the practice of law. Gaudin’s great-great grandfather, John H. Ilsley, served as Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 1865-68.

During and after law school, from 1956-66, Gaudin also wrote for The States-Item as a sports columnist alongside Pete Finney. He was Vice President and legal counsel of the Louisiana Sportswriter’s Association, which made him an honorary lifetime member.

Gaudin was elected to Louisiana’s 24th Judicial District Court in 1966, one of the youngest persons in the state to be elected to the bench at that time. He sat on the district bench until 1982, during which time he served as Chief Judge, President of the 4th Circuit Judges Association, and on the Executive Committee of the Louisiana District Judges Association. He was elected to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, State of Louisiana, in 1982 and served until 1999, where he again held the position of Chief Judge. He also sat by special appointment as Judge Ad Hoc on the Louisiana Supreme Court, and on various circuit courts of appeal throughout the state.

A master storyteller, Gaudin used his journalistic skills to write succinct and concise legal opinions. In 1983, he declared that a Louisiana law requiring women to follow their husbands wherever they chose to live to be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court affirmed Gaudin’s decision and the law was revoked. In a 1994 opinion, quoted in The New York Times, Gaudin upheld the right of an investigative reporter to protect the identity of his sources under the First Amendment, stating with his characteristic brevity, that “freedom of the press neither begins nor ends” with certain statutes.

Fellow Fifth Circuit judge, Thomas C. Wicker, Jr., said of Gaudin, “Charley had a wonderful temperament for a judge. He never owned or used a gavel or raised his voice while on the bench. He not only was an outstanding jurist, but the most popular judge I knew with both lawyers and judges.” He was respected for being principled and decisive, with a caseload that always was current.

After retiring from the bench, Judge Gaudin worked with the Department of Justice writing opinions for the Louisiana Attorney General. He served as President of the Louisiana Retired Judges Association, elected in 2002, and as President of the Louisiana Conference of Court of Appeal Judges.

In 2004 he was appointed by the governor as chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, a position he held for six years, under both Democratic and Republican governors.

A gifted athlete, Gaudin was a three-sport college letterman at USL, named to the All-Gulf States Conference football team in 1951 after leading the conference in individual scoring and receiving. Prior to that he was a member of the 1949 LSU Cinderella team and the 1950 Sugar Bowl team. While at St. Paul’s he was named most valuable player in football and all state in basketball, while also setting records on four state championship track teams.

Gaudin was among the first graduates to be inducted into the St. Paul’s Hall of Fame, where he was named Outstanding Alumnus in 2003 and selected to speak at the school’s Centennial Celebration. He had been head football and basketball coach there.

Gaudin served in the US Air Force during the Korean War from 1952-4, stationed in Greenland.

One of Gaudin’s most satisfying accomplishments was the founding of the Cystic Fibrosis Celebrity Golf Tournament while serving as President of the Louisiana Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Archie Manning, for whom the Tournament later was named, described Gaudin as “a great man and friend who worked diligently to make the tournament highly successful.” The tournament was the first charitable golf tournament in the region, and became a model for other such tournaments. Gaudin’s ability to attract celebrity athletes was the keystone to the tournament’s success. Gaudin’s other civic endeavors included the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army and the Advisory Committee of the Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre.

Judge Gaudin was an avid reader with a particular interest in WWII history. This interest was evident in his life-long hobby of collecting and painting toy soldiers. His collection of thousands of soldiers was featured in a 2008 magazine article in which he noted that his favorite soldiers “will always be the ones I once played with. They bring back very happy memories of a long lost but fondly remembered childhood.”

Gaudin was a member of several carnival organizations and New Orleans Country Club.

Gaudin cherished most his family: his wife of 63 years (Myra Elizabeth Altman); his three children (Melanee Usdin, Monique Gardner and Charles Gaudin) and their spouses (Steven W. Usdin, J. Warren Gardner, Jr. and Kathleen DeMilia, respectively); his four grandchildren (Matthew Charles Usdin, William Gaudin Usdin, Eleanor Tidwell Gardner and Samuel Freret Gardner); and his two brothers (Felix August Gaudin (predeceased) and Pierre Francis Gaudin and their wives (Elizabeth Tetlow and Janice Collins (predeceased), respectively); and his many nieces and nephews and grand nieces and nephews. He is predeceased by his parents, Regis Bernard Gaudin and Inez Catherine Grenier Gaudin, and his beloved aunt Wilhelmina Grenier.

Visitation will be held at Lake Lawn Funeral Home at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 9, 2019, followed by a service at 1:00 p.m. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift to the Gaudin Family Scholarship at Loyola University New Orleans, 7214 St. Charles Avenue, Campus Box 909, N.O. LA 70118, or to the charity of your choice.