OJ - Sam, what is your date of birth and tell me about your education background?

Sam - I was born October 30, 1948 in New Orleans. I started grammar school at La Salle, which was only six blocks from where I was raised on Jefferson Ave. I rode my bike to school every day. I spent one year at Holy Name of Jesus grammar school and then went to Jesuit high school for five years. My first year at Jesuit was as a pre-freshman. Then I went to Tulane University getting an undergraduate degree in engineering. I graduated in 1970 from Tulane and went to work for Modjeski and Masters, a bridge engineering firm still active today. They designed the Greater New Orleans Bridge and the Huey P. Long Bridge. They are a great old engineering firm and just engineered the recent work on the widening of the Huey P. Long Bridge.

OJ - You stayed in the engineering field your whole career?

Sam - I stayed in structural engineering and marine engineering my whole career.

OJ - Let's talk about your mom and dad, Sam T. Burguières and Gertrude Reynaud Burguières.

Sam - The thought that comes to mind is one of peace and order. They made sure that my sister and brother and I had a peaceful and harmonious home. We were encouraged in every way and I don't remember ever having a hand laid on me. On the other side of that was the reality of their generation. We saw little or no affection between the two of them, never an affectionate hug or a kiss. However, it was a warm and stable environment all the way through.

OJ - Gertrude, is that how you recall it?

Gertrude - They knew each other since they were children. They grew up within five blocks of each other. My father was born in 1916 and mom in 1918. I do know that they married for love. They married in January 1944 during the war when many couples got married out of a sense of desperation or wanting to get connected. That was not the case with my mother and father.

Sam - There certainly was something special between them and although it wasn't openly communicated, it was truly there. They were at peace with one another. Their marriage was of the classic mold. He was the bread winner; he worked long hours and when he came home, he was exhausted. Then my mother ran the show; she ran the house.

OJ - Where did your father work?

Sam - His entire career was with Celotex Corp. in Marrero, LA. He started out as a time keeper at the gate working part time as a teenager. When he got back from the war, he worked in the Accounting/Production Control department. For a while he went to Loyola night school but never finished. Mom went to Soule College or some other business college. She knew shorthand and was a wonderful typist and in later years did a lot of typing for various people as well as for the Company.

OJ - Did your dad volunteer for the service at the outset of the war?

Sam - I believe he did. He had an issue with one leg, as you may know, from a childhood illness. Whatever it was, it weakened one leg and made him unfit for combat. He was in Vmail and Supply. He didn't say much other than that he was near combat zones and got through the war drinking beer from frosted cylinders on various South Sea Islands, from New Guinea to the Solomon Islands and wherever else.

OJ - Let's get back to your career. You graduate then you go to work for Modjeski and Masters. Did you say to yourself that this is what you wanted to do as a career? And when did you begin to hear your dad talk about the Burguières business?

Sam - I thought my career was headed in the right direction and I heard Dad talk about the Burguières business from as long ago as I can remember. He had a keen interest. I knew he felt that the business and the land represented something important to the family. I think he felt that if there was ever to be economic freedom, it would come from JMB. He had a vision that there was value in the land and in the business. Some of my earliest memories were of driving out to what we called "the country," visiting Cypremort and staying with Uncle Chapman, who we called Bunny. We also stayed with Ed Burguières at his place when I was about 10 years old. I remember family members talking about how Uncle Jules was going to bring us all oil money. I remember standing in the back seat of our car and hearing Mom and Dad talk about Uncle Jules.

One time we went out to the country so Dad could talk to Uncle Jules. I can't remember where we stayed, but Dad was frustrated after that meeting. He was always frustrated when he met with Uncle Jules. I went through the operating sugar mill on one of our trips and remember the sound and the smell of the mill; I remember walking across the swinging bridge over the pond which was between the mill and the "Big" house that Jules lived in. We did stay in that house once. It was like staying in a cavern, cold and barren. I rode the elevator on the back stairs of the house; it was a seat on a track and I rode it up and down. Interestingly, of all the times I visited the plantation, I don't think I ever met Jules for more than a fleeting moment. It was hello and then I was whisked away, which was normal in those days when children were involved. But I have vivid memories of Dad talking about the business, talking about how our family had something really good and valuable. After Jules died in 1960, there was a big gathering of shareholders in this house, the house we are sitting in right now. They were here to try and figure out what to do. As I mentioned, Dad was always frustrated when he met with Uncle Jules, because nobody could find out anything from him. Jules kept everything to himself; everything was a mystery. So those shareholders who met in this house were here to figure out what should happen next and who should get involved. As it turned out it really was Jules's own money and his relationship with the Whitney Bank that kept the business going and Jules ran it that way. I was told by Dad that the Company would have been lost without Jules's money and the help of the Whitney Bank. That held the Company together for generations to come. I really believe that.

OJ - Who was on the Board just prior to Jules's death?

Sam - Jules was Vice-President, our Uncle Henry was Secretary, and Ed Burguières was a Director. Henry worked the farm in those days. The way I understand it, Henry led the farming activity and Ed worked the business side. When Jules died in 1960, Ed took over the managing part of the business. Those were very chaotic years and it wasn't long before the Company was in receivership. There was bickering everywhere! Uncle Pat was trying to assert himself because he had been excluded all those years. As a matter of fact, everybody felt excluded by Jules in those days. So everyone stood up and wanted to be heard. We ended up in receivership. One of the sobering things, I believe, that helped us survive was the Trust that Jules had established for his 26 nieces and nephews. The Trust necessitated the appointment of a trustee and the Whitney Bank appointed Abner Hughes. Abner Hughes was a very steadying influence in those early years as well as was Henry Pierson, who was the Company attorney and an attorney for the Whitney Bank. Most of that information is second hand and came from my father who at that point was involved. He was representing the Henry family and it wasn't too long after that when he became a director. Dad initiated a Henry family voting trust for all Henry family members in order to increase his ability to shape the future of the Company.

OJ - While all of this is going on you were in college. Did you know who you wanted to be and what you wanted to do? Were you aggressive?

Sam - Yes, I guess I was aggressive. When I worked, I enjoyed it very much and I was good at it. Pretty soon I realized that if wanted to really move ahead, I would have to go back to graduate school. So, after a couple years of work and after getting married to Beryl Hoffman, I quit work and went back to school and got a Masters Degree from the University of Texas in Austin. While we were there, we had our first child, Sarah. I graduated in 1974 and went back to work for the same firm I had previously worked for. Back in those days we were poor as church mice!

OJ - How did you meet Beryl Hoffman?

Sam - Beryl was a friend of my sister, Gertrude. She went to high school with Gertrude. We were married for 17 years and had three children.

OJ - Then you met Antoinette Hill, who we all know as Nettie. Tell me about that time in your life.

Sam - Somewhere during those years, the University of Texas starting asking me to come back and teach. Prior to that, I taught a class during the day at Tulane for three years while I was working. I guess I thought I wanted to be a professor. The year was 1977 or 1978. I enjoyed teaching very much. I had two children at the time; Anne had come along. I left the company and went back to Austin to get a doctorate degree to ultimately end up teaching full time. That didn't work. We had our third child there in Austin, Sam T., III. We ended up leaving before I completed my doctorate because we needed more money to live on. We moved to Columbia, South Carolina. where I taught for a year at the University of South Carolina. Jimmy Carter was president and interest rates were around 18%. I knew we were headed for bankruptcy; I had it plotted on a chart. I knew that I had to go back to work. There were also unpleasant things going on in my marriage at the time. I left the University of South Carolina and went to work for J. Ray McDermott in New Orleans at 1010 Common St. We finally had some income coming in. We've got three children but our marriage is stressed and is starting to fall apart. We were later divorced in 1987. Career wise, I stayed with J. Ray McDermott for about a year and then left to work for Marine Concrete Structures. I ended up as president of that company, which was very weak at the time, and unfortunately the company went bankrupt. So, I've got a divorce going on, a company that I'm president of slowly going in the tank, and my father gets sick and then dies in 1986.

It was a very rough time in my life. Fortunately, through a spiritual awakening in my life, prompted by among other things the Twelve Step Recovery Program, I was able to get hold of myself physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I used to do service work in that program and talk to family groups and people involved in a treatment center. Nettie worked in that treatment center and was the person that handled interventions. I would see her there. She had been married previously for nineteen years and had divorced in 1988. That's how we met and we saw each other regularly from that point on. We married in 1993.

OJ - What about your involvement with JMB and your father's involvement prior to his stepping down from the Board?

Sam - My involvement started when I was elected to the Board in 1981 when my father stepped down. Back then Dad was the representative for the Henry family. Once a month he dictated a letter to my mother who took shorthand. In those letters he reported to his brothers and two sisters what was going on in the Burguières Company. The letters were very tedious. My dad was a detail man and he wanted those details captured. My mother put up with that, and many of the Company files were kept in this house in those early days. When the sugar mill closed in the 1970's, Uncle Henry lost his job and he ended up working off-shore for the rest of his career until he retired. He was still on the Board at that time as I remember. The 1960's and 1970's were rough years: Pat, Ernest and Ed were on the Board. Joan and Marion were there as well. It was tumultuous and little was accomplished as there was constant disagreement. I talked to Dad about day to day operations and he indicated the struggles that the Board faced. There were law suits that had to be defended. Dad brought in Donald Doyle to help in that area and I got to know Donald well. Dad called Donald his "Man for all Seasons." He was a prince of a guy and a brilliant lawyer. He got the Company out of receivership and defended the internal lawsuits that were around in those days. I remember Mom saying that there were boxes and boxes of records stacked up in the back of the courthouse in Franklin during one of those internal cases that Donald handled for the Company.

OJ - When had your Dad joined the Board?

Sam - He was elected in October of 1962 and he served until 1981. I'm telling what I remember over that 20-year period. It was a rough period of time, a period of disagreement when stockholders did not get along with each other. Families took opposing positions. But the Company stumbled and bumped on through.

OJ - Let's talk about your mother, Gertrude, and the role she played in supporting your dad when he was involved in the Company.

Sam - I think she could have run a multimillion-dollar company had she wanted to. However, she stood behind my father. She was brilliant and had one passion and that was raising children and running a family. My father's passion was to save this family company and do whatever it took to accomplish that goal. I remember him saying that he felt there was also great value in the Jules Trust. That feeling turned out to be very prophetic. My mother stood right beside my dad as a sounding board and secretary and encouraged him the whole way. He felt there was great value in the Company, and it was certainly worth fighting for. So did she! There were times when she rolled her eyes at the various indignities that my dad faced. His own family didn't always line up behind him on various issues, and he tolerated that.

OJ - That's a good segue to a discussion about the relationship between your dad and Ed Burguières. Tell me about that.

Sam - I was somewhat distant due to the requirements of my career but I remember them being cordial to one another and they got along as couples. When Dad and Mom got together with Ed and Elsie, everything was all right, but business wise, things were different. Ed was a strong individual and he felt that he knew exactly what ought to happen and everybody else's ideas were not that important. He was a bit like Uncle Jules. He was a people person, a politician, everyone liked him and he was really fun to be around. My brother Tom and I stayed with him when we were younger and he was a kick. When it came to business, Ed and my dad were like oil and water. Ed had a vision and it didn't include anyone running the business with him or after him. He decided that no one knew anything about the leases; no one knew anything about what it took to run the business and no one knew anything about the sugar cane operations or had the ability to run the Company. He felt that if he retired, the Company should probably be sold. My dad's position was to save the Company and to do whatever was necessary to accomplish that. I don't know ifthat was completely my understanding at the time or the result of talking with my dad and then reaching that conclusion. Somewhere in that time frame, the idea of selling the Company was floated. Due to the tremendous turmoil that existed within the Company, even my dad thought that if the price was right, maybe the Company should indeed be sold.

OJ - In about 1977 there was one offer to buy the company from a guy named Wiley. What were the details of that deal?

Sam - At the time, Ed, who was the manager of the Company, started to sell stock and he encouraged other people to sell their stock to the M.A. Patout family. Don't confuse M.A. Patout with Charles Patout Burguières. Way back when, there may have been a family relationship, but not within the last few generations. M.A. Patout is a big sugarcane company. They have a mill in operation with extensive land and sugarcane even today, and for quite a while we were shipping cane to them because we didn't have a mill in operation. Anyway, back to the sale of stock. My dad felt that this was the beginning of the end! You've got to remember the chaos that existed at the time. Board members were unable to reach agreement. Infighting was a highlight of Board meetings and little was accomplished. Things were a mess! Ed's position was to sell the Company if a half way decent offer was presented. My dad finally resigned himself to the inevitable. However, he was encouraged after meeting with Ron Cambre in the early 1970's.

Interestingly, Ron had been introduced to the Company by Ed, who took him to meetings and talked to him about the Company business. Ron was in his early thirties and had married Gail Burguières who was Ed's niece. Although related only by marriage, Ron had shown interest in the Company. Those conversations with Ron convinced Dad that no one of dad's generation should run the Company. So, a fellow by the name of Wiley came into the picture and made an offer to buy the Company for $6-$7 million. I don't remember the exact amount or where Wiley came from. Ed wanted to sell and Dad didn't want to do the deal, but he was resigned. As it turned out, the check for the sale of the Company never arrived and that was the end of the Wiley deal. Meanwhile, my father had become really impressed with Ron Cambre who was off to a successful career with Freeport-McMoRan. As a matter of fact, Dad had encouraged Ron. At that time, I'm sure that Dad had convinced himself that Ron could run the Company. Ron, on his own, had contacted Philip Burguières, a successful oil service company executive whom he knew and a member of the Denis family. He asked him if he was interested in trying to save the family Company. Suddenly, there are two bright young men interested in saving JMB!

OJ - I have heard a number of times about a meeting that took place in Ed's suite at the Pontchatrain Hotel the night before a Board meeting. At that point it was obvious the Wiley deal was dead. What have you been told about that night?

Sam - As I understood it, Ed was holding court. He was laid out in his underwear on the bed. Ron and Philip were there and they told Ed that they didn't believe that the Company should be sold; that there was value there and they were interested in doing something. Ed told them that if they felt that way, then to have at it. At the meeting the next morning Ed announced that the Company would not be sold and would move ahead with a new management team that had excellent credentials. Both Ron and Philip had engineering and management backgrounds and both went to graduate business schools, Ron at Harvard and Philip at the Wharton School. Both had technical backgrounds and MBA's.

OJ - I would like to go back to that time, years before, when the Company was taken into receivership. What do you know about that time?

Sam - I know little except that shortly after Uncle Jules died in 1960, during a time of extreme chaos, it took place. I don't know if it's true or not, but I understand that Ernest, Jr. forced the issue. A receiver is appointed when a company can't run itself. The receiver steps in to run the company because shareholders can't agree. It's under the direction of the court. I don't know who that person was. It wasn't Abner Hughes because Abner was appointed by the Whitney Bank as trustee of the Jules Trust, which had a substantial block of stock. By the way, Abner was a steadying influence and a very sharp guy. How he put up with the chaos and disorder through the 1960's and 1970's, I'll never know. He was committed to seeing that the Jules Trust and the Whitney Bank were paid back. Abner was an accountant and worked for a major accounting firm. Somehow through all the confusion of those years, the indebtedness between the Company and the Whitney Bank and the Jules Trust got resolved, or paid, or whatever. When I came on the Board in 1981, there was no big debt left.

OJ - Who was responsible for the record keeping in those days?

Sam - Record keeping was work in progress. Most of the files, the leases, property descriptions, and surveys ended up in this house. Most of the financial records ended up at J. K. Byrne, who was the accountant at the time. The other files were at the Milling firm. The Milling firm was represented by Henry Pierson. My first few Board meetings were held at the Milling firm. Henry Pierson would tell us what was going on in our business, things like who called, who wanted to lease property, and so forth. He even negotiated oil leases for us.

OJ - How in the world did the Company survive those years?

Sam - When a group of us went to Harvard in 2003 to take the course on family business, the people giving the course went down the list of challenges and problems that kill family businesses and JMB had already been through every item on the list. That's how tough it had been, and yet we still survived. I don't know how we did it. Maybe it was all those Masses that Uncle Pat attended and all the rosaries that he said. Somehow, there was truly a Guardian Angel watching over this Company in spite of the family members. In all fairness, there were family members who really cared about the business and who had the tenacity to stick with things through the years and through the problems. I know my father was one of those people and I know my mother was one in the many roles she played throughout the years. They knew, as other people did, that there was something of value for their children and for themselves.

OJ - When your father left the Board, how did you end up taking his place and representing the Henry family?

Sam - I was back in New Orleans from South Carolina and had been getting all of the Company information from my father over the years. As I understood from my mother, Ed would not leave the Board unless my father left and my father would not leave the Board unless Ed left.

It was the next generation bringing something new to family management. It was really the only way we could get anything done. I represented the Henry family; Al was from the Denis family, and of course Ron and Philip were also from the Denis family; Pepper was from the Ernest family and Tom Ducey and Richard Leefe from the Patout family. Dick Leike replaced Tom several years later. There was nobody from the Inez family as Marion stepped down and no one replaced her. Marion was sharp and she understood that Ron and Philip were going to get the job done and the best thing she could do was step down. Back then the charter called for a maximum of seven people and we had the seven.

Let's remember that about that time much was going on. The Wiley deal had collapsed; Ed was on a campaign trying to sell the Company piecemeal and had sold some of his stock to M.A. Patout. He encouraged others to sell their stock to the M.A. Patout family. Most importantly, Ron and Philip had just taken over management of JMB. These were really interesting times. Then in the 1970's, the Right of First Refusal on share transactions was put forward to protect against a company take-over. It was a company charter amendment. That was the concept that really saved us. It guaranteed that the Company had the right to buy, first, any stock that any stockholder wanted to sell. It was a royal battle and it came down to a small percentage of stock that stopped M.A. Patout from owning our Company. Fortunately, through the late 1970's and early 1980's, Ron and Philip and the Company were able to eventually buy back the stock from M.A. Patout and that saved JMB.

They finally reached an agreement and both left. That's when I came aboard along with Al Burguières, Ed's son. Those were the days when the Company approach was to have at least one member from each family on the Board. Nepotism was certainly involved. My father spoke with his family and it was agreed that I would take his place. It was understood that sons and daughters replaced fathers or mothers and it's only been in the last five or so years that this was seriously challenged. Tom Ducey and Richard Leefe came on the Board replacing Uncle Pat. That was the result of a hammered-out agreement. Pepper Brown also came aboard.

OJ - Let me review the elements of the Right of First Refusal M.A. Patout had been buying JMB stock and was heading to a point where it could have controlled our Company. Ron and Philip had control of 51% of JMB stock and told M.A. Patout that they were going to block them from buying our Company. They also told them that the JMB shareholders who voted against selling anymore stock to M.A. Patout and who also voted for the Right of First Refusal, represented two-thirds of the shareholders. And of course, that was enough to block the sale. They further told them that whenever M.A. Patout was ready, JMB would buy its stock back, which we did. In many cases the stock was purchased for twice what it had been sold for. The deal was good for M.A. Patout and it certainly was good for us.

Sam - It really was. Ron and Philip went to Billy Patout and told him that his efforts to buy our Company were dead in the water. The M.A. Patout holdings were bought out in the late 1970 's and early 1980s. And to protect ourselves, the Right of First Refusal would stop any effort by M.A. Patout, or anyone else, from purchasing our stock in the future unless the Company chose to permit it.

Gertrude - It seems that the Company had to be saved over and over again.

Sam - That's right. Everything that could happen did happen. It was very strenuous and interestingly, all of this happened before I was on the Board. You can imagine how everything had to be kept in lock-step to get this charter amendment approved. To keep two-thirds of the stockholders together was a chore. Donald Doyle was involved getting the legal aspects together and all of the proxies had to be kept together. The Right of First Refusal was an accomplishment! So, as we move along into the late 1970' s, the efforts to sell the Company had been stopped and Ron and Philip had established themselves as very able to run JMB.

OJ - What was going on out in Franklin at that time? Did we open an office?

Sam - We had no office when I joined the Board. In the early stages, Henry Pierson would tell us what was going on in the Company and Craig Silva of J. K. Byrne, the accounting firm, would tell us how much we had in the check book. It was that basic. They would get the checks that came in and deposit them. Every month or so I would go to J. K. Byrne to okay the invoices that had to be paid and if there was excess cash, we would have a vote at the Board meeting on dividends. Craig would write a check for any cash left and I would walk down to the Whitney Bank in New Orleans and buy a Treasury Bill.

OJ - How did Ron and Philip carve out time to devote to JMB?

Sam - They were extremely busy and were going to the top in their careers. Philip was still in his thirties and was Chairman and CEO of Cameron Iron Works. It was a time-consuming position. Ron was on the fast track at Freeport-McMoRan. They had busy careers and were raising families. I don't know how they did it, except that they had a passion for our Company.

OJ - And you were extremely busy also. You were on a fast track.

Sam - I was hired as Chief Engineer of Marine Concrete Structures and ended up being President. I was running and gunning! We had a sense of professionalism in the Board meetings and there were no fights. The ugly factor was gone. But there still was commotion at the shareholder meetings. Overall it was peaceful and orderly and we were able to figure out what to do. There was time to come up with a vision. For instance, we discussed the concept that JMB should become an S Corp from our then current position as a C Corp., and secondly, that we really should hire management on a day-to-day basis. We needed it all pulled together. Records needed to be in a central location; leases needed to be reviewed by someone who knew the land, and everyday management was needed. That's when we decided to hire a manager. After a year or so we hired a professional manager, Cliff LeBlanc. That was the early 1980's when Cliff was hired.

OJ - Is it safe to say there was little or no friction on the Board at that time?

Sam - I can hardly remember anything but unanimous votes by the Board members. The storms of the 1960's and 1970's had subsided. We made the transition from the older generation who trusted no one, to the younger generation who questioned but trusted. It was a time when we thought about paying dividends, a time when forward thinking took the place of backward thinking. We kept one dividend in the bank and we paid out the rest. On a weekly phone call we discussed everything - where the Company was going, how it was going to get there, what everybody had to do to get the Company moving, who do we hire, where do we put all the files, when can we get maps together that actually show what we own and countless other things.

I want to make a couple of comments about Cliff LeBlanc who we hired as our first professional manager. He did an outstanding job for us. He was tenacious and he pulled everything together. He opened our first office in a converted home across the street from our current office in Franklin. He lived upstairs and had an office downstairs. I think he took us from scattered confusion to pretty good order. He hired Debi Lauret. Debi is still with us today and is a God send. She is honest, conscientious, and really dug in for us. She knows everybody in our family and knows more about our family than most of us do. Cliff and Debi tightened the Company up. Leases, land ownership, opportunities, maps that tied our land together, reputation and organization were the areas that Cliff put together with Debi's help. After a time, the office moved to a bank building in downtown Franklin. That was our office for quite a few years. During those years, we struggled with expenses as all companies do when they enter a period of change. One thing led to another and the Company decided to make a change. As a result, Cliff LeBlanc was terminated in the early 1990's. Cliff had been with us a long time and we appreciated his efforts.

OJ - Tell me about the acquisition of Southern States.

Sam - When Uncle Pat died in 1985 and the Jules Trust dissolved, the Trust's stock in Southern States passed to individual family members. JMB' s two visionaries at the head, Ron and Philip, saw opportunity. They saw Southern States that was held by the Trust was now held by individuals and JMB ended up with forty percent of the company. This was a whole story in itself. Bringing that 40% interest into JMB was huge. It was the story of the 1990's and the early 2000's.

OJ - How did Ron and Philip look at Southern States and realize there might be something there?

Sam - Uncle Pat was the last of the 26 nieces and nephews covered by the Jules Trust, so when he died, the shares of JMB stock and the shares of Southern Sates were distributed to the heirs. At that time Ron and Philip went to Southern States and told them that since JMB family members owned forty percent of their company, they wanted a seat on their board. They went to some of those meetings and found that Southern States owned large mineral rights in Florida and was run by a couple of lawyers in New Orleans. A short time later Ron and Philip felt that Southern States was just sitting there and could be administered better by our office in Franklin, so why not buy it. JMB paid for an appraisal which was very expensive. Then we offered JMB family shareholders in Southern States a stock swap, JMB shares for Southern States shares. It was accepted. Then the Company bought out the remaining Southern States shareholders. Now, that was really an aggressive move on our part. Up to then we had legacy land, salt and sugarcane income, and not much growth. It was time to grow the value of the Company.

OJ - The first aggressive step was the change from C Corp. to S Corp. which failed the first time but was approved the second time.

Sam - The first failure of the C Corp. to S Corp. was a result of some shareholders in the Patout family. They simply didn't trust what was going on and didn't trust some of the people on the Board. The conversion had to be unanimous. It was a very expensive mistrust. The second attempt went through with some hard bargaining. Ernest, III, joined the Board. He was bright and very energetic but sometimes a contrarian. Lawyers question everything, as they probably should. As history records JMB management, contrarians certainly had their place. And every person who served in any capacity in any management role has contributed their time and effort to building a company that could have failed without their commitment.

OJ - Can you name the new Board members?

Sam - In 1996, Tom Ducey stepped aside and Richard Leefe came on. In 1997 Ernest, III, arrived.

OJ - Tell me about Richard Leefe. He supported the change from C Corp. to S Corp., but something happened after that.

Sam - After we acquired Southern States, Ron and Philip, seeing that they were coming to the end of their leadership time and that the Advisory Board was already in place, determined that they should make room on the Board for more of the younger generation. I think that Richard agreed with that decision. At the time he was working on the Southern States acquisition and there was disagreement about how it was handled. There were some disagreements at the Board level that led to the need for changes. Richard, Ernest, III, and Al were voted off the board in 2006.

OJ - We can't talk about Southern States without talking about Harry Smith.

Sam - Harry was a childhood friend of Philip's. They went to the same grammar school. Harry was with a major accounting firm for years but in later years had started independent consulting with family businesses. That was his specialty. He joined JMB as a consultant and quickly became CFO. He straightened up the books and gave us regular reporting, budgeting, and projections, and of course he dug right into Southern States. He is gradually phasing down now towards retirement. Harry has done a superb job for us. Overall, we have done remarkably well with the people who have helped over the years, and I think Glenn Vice, hired in 2008, is a winner. Glenn is bright, well educated and knows everybody out in the country. We're blessed to have him running the day-to-day operations of our Company.

OJ - Sam, what was the personality of the Board over the past 30 years?

Sam - I don't think there was a split vote on anything more than two or three times. It was a serious, business-like board and it was well behaved. That was not necessarily the case with shareholder meetings.

OJ - What was the controversy regarding the new office in Franklin?

Sam - We were renting this little office on Hospital A venue in Franklin. It was small and we needed a bigger office and boardroom. When the Southern States condemnation money came in, we bought land in Texas, which was a dream and vision of Philip's. At the time the sugar business was stalled and the thought was to look at something else and to diversify. The move, if you think about it, is very much in line with a Burguières trait. Philip saw all this inexpensive land in Texas just like Jules Martial Burguières saw land in south Louisiana not that many years after the Civil War. Jules bought land cheap from plantation owners who couldn't pay their property taxes and who were being foreclosed on. Years later, we call it our legacy land. Originally it was swamp with cypress forests and sugarcane plantations. Philip also proposed the purchase of a home in Franklin, which was turned into a very professional office. Some shareholders were shocked with the amount of money spent on the office. Philip felt that the family and the Company should have a proper place of business in Franklin for the years to come.

OJ - How did the Harvard experience come about?

Sam - The Harvard courses were a vision of Ron's. Both Ron and Philip felt we needed it. At that point we had an Advisory Board, primarily comprised of children of Board members, but true, formal, family business education was missing. We didn't have a means to identify outside management needs. That's what the trips to Harvard accomplished. The first was in 2004 and I went to represent the present Board. Harry Smith, Susanne Cambre, Doug Burguières, Michele Reed and Emily Dalicandro went. We came away from that with real vision. The idea of the Family Assembly and the Family Council became a reality. We really understood that if a transition was to take place, we needed a concrete plan on how to manage the Company. It was clear that the battles we fought and the problems we faced were not any different from what other family owned companies go through. We had to be bold enough to get a governance plan going, to map out the future on our terms, to prepare for change and to look at outside management. It was an eye opener! It was a watershed event! Imagine, we were in a room full of family companies that went through and were going through everything we went through and were going through. The question was: Are we a business or are we a bunch of family members waiting for a windfall and cashing checks?

OJ - Was there a point where your father might have gone out and worked on the plantation after the war?

Sam - No. And I say no because he married my mother who was connected to New Orleans and they were very close to my aunts and uncles. My dad was close to his buddies in New Orleans. Also, my father lost his father at a young age and his mother, Sara Hyams Trufant Burguières, was left in New Orleans to care for, even though Dad had two siblings also living in New Orleans. He was involved with handling her finances and certainly looking after her. We called my grandmother "Mummy." She was born January 1890 in New Orleans and married Henry I. Burguières, Sr. in December 1910.

OJ - Tell me about your dad and his relationships with his siblings.

Sam - I think it was good. I don't remember anything that could be considered as negative. Two brothers, Chapman "Bunny" and Henry, lived on the plantations. Another brother, Jack, lived in New Jersey. Dad had two sisters, Sally and Marie Alice "Booty," who both lived in New Orleans. Sally lived next door to her mother with her husband, OJ Reiss, Jr. For many years, Booty lived next door with her mother. Bunny ended up working on the plantations because family members were needed to manage the operations in those days. The older ones who were not in school went out to the country. Those were the really tough times when Uncle Jules ruled. If you remember, our Uncle Henry also worked on the land. As children, Dad and his siblings all lived at Midway plantation. Some liked it and some didn't. Some ended up back there. When we sold the sugar mill and stopped farming our own land, Bunny remarried and helped his wife in her antique store in Centerville. Somewhere during those years, Bunny had a breakdown and spent some time in a hospital. Maybe it was war related, but I'm not sure. I do know that when his wife was sick, Bunny stayed at her side and took care of her until she died. Her name was May Lucker and she was a very sweet person.

OJ - I've always felt uncomfortable that so much of the Henry family issues fell to your dad and your mother. It seemed to me that over a period of years, your grandmother also counted on your father for so many things.

Sam - I don't know what the dynamics were but I know that my grandmother counted on my father and I'm sure that regarding her finances, he consulted with his siblings. She had rental apartments that required maintenance and a careful eye on tenants. He also was very involved with JMB and his brothers and sisters were not. However, I know he spoke with each of them on a regular basis. My mother played a key role as a sounding board and support for my father in his dealings with JMB and the family.

OJ - Was your mother ever officially recognized for the contributions she made to the company?

Sam - Well, for years and years she was always voted the secretary of the annual Board meeting. She would take the minutes of the meeting and she took those minutes up until and after I was on the Board. She had a relationship with everyone. It was wonderful to see the various people come up to her at the stockholders meeting. She knew everybody and really enjoyed herself. I believe she was respected and loved by all.

OJ - What are your plans for the future? How long will you stay on the Board?

Sam - I'm the last of the older generation standing. I've told the younger generation that I'm here at their pleasure and I will stay as long as they want me. I'd like to spend a few more years. I think I am viewed as a steadying influence on the Board and also on the shareholders. I've been able to talk to both sides on some of the tough stuff, so I'm still here. However, I do plan to retire professionally next year.

OJ - What's the attitude on the JMB Board today?

Sam - I think everybody on the Board recognizes that we don't have the excellent guidance that we had with Ron and Philip for those 30 wonderful years. I think all of us know that it's time to recognize outside talent and to realize that our Company will be better with a blend of family management and outside talent. Today, we're a thriving, growing company with unlimited potential. If the shareholders want this to grow, we need the management that will grow it. Our history of management is sprinkled with talent. In past years past we had Cliff LeBlanc then Lynn Simon who passed away. Then we didn't have a manager for a while, and we asked Debi if she could step up, which she did. Then we brought in Harry Smith as CFO. He was a steadying influence on the Company and a great guy. In 2008 we brought in Glenn Vice, first as operational manager and then in 2012 as President.

OJ - Let's visit a difficult time in your life. Your son, Sam, died of cancer. Tell me about those awful times.

Sam - My son Sam graduated from Louisiana Tech in 2000, then got his MBA at LSU and went to work in New Orleans. During that time he lived in this house with my mother. He went in the banking business and met his future bride, Jaime. That was in 2003, I think. At Christmas 2004, he had a cough that just wouldn't go away. It turned out to be a tumor about the size of a fist and it was wrapped around his heart. It was an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. His wife was pregnant with their first child. From day one the doctors said he only had a 50/50 chance of survival. He fought it with chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. That was when Hurricane Katrina hit and Nettie and I were temporarily relocated to Houston where Sam was a patient at M.D. Anderson. Throughout his treatment, he stayed in Houston with his sister Sarah and her husband Mike Lowe or in a cottage behind Philip's Burguières home. Philip had gotten involved with M.D. Anderson when his wife Cheryl Ann fought cancer for a number of years. I think Sam left Houston against his doctor's advice. He wanted to get back home. He flew back and two days later went into severe heart distress, and died on October 3, 2006. It was a tough time. Today, Sam's wife Jaime has re-united with her first husband, Hamp Newman, and she works in medical sales. We often see Jaime, her daughter Grayson, and our grandson Sam T., IV.

OJ - Another tough question: Tell me about some of your last conversations with your father.

Sam - I had replaced him on the Board, as you know. He was still very interested in all facets of JMB business until he died in 1986. He talked about how he knew where the leadership and talent were when he met Ron Cambre and Philip Burguières. He had developed a good relationship with both guys and spent time with them. He was proud of what was accomplished. We talked JMB on a regular basis and we talked about the issues I faced at that point in my life. We didn't talk long strategy sessions because we knew that the right guys were on top of those issues. We did talk about management issues and expenses. At that point everybody was focused on those things and the solutions were not easy. I know Dad was very pleased in what he had accomplished. You could see that in the way he talked about things. One thing that struck me as interesting was that the night my mother had Dad taken to the hospital, she didn't bother to wake me. At the time I was sleeping in the back room. I guess they wanted to keep that to themselves. It wasn't long after that when he died in January of 1986. I'd like to add how proud I am of my daughters Sarah and Anne and their husbands and beautiful families. They are both successful in their careers, and Anne serves on the JMB Advisory Board. They have blessed Nettie and me with five beautiful granddaughters.