Armand ‘Ace’ LeGardeur, builder of New Orleans civic institutions, dies at 93

Armand “Ace” LeGardeur, a New Orleans construction company leader who not only erected buildings but also built up institutions to promote physical and economic health, died Saturday at Ochsner Medical Center. He was 93.

A lifelong New Orleanian who was CEO of Carl E. Woodward Construction Co., LeGardeur also led the Children’s Hospital board, the Chamber of Commerce and the United Way of Greater New Orleans. In recognition of his community service, he was awarded The Times-Picayune Loving Cup in 1982.

“He liked being part of the community,” said Larry Case, an architect who worked with LeGardeur for about 50 years. “He felt that we were working to build a community, and he wanted to give back some of his time because the community had been good to us.”

In LeGardeur’s business and volunteer work, he was a low-key leader, said a daughter, Lili LeGardeur. “He wouldn’t make a lot of fireworks. He’d just show up and see stuff and do stuff. He’d get an idea and think, ‘We’re going to do that,’ and people would get on board. … Dad was an earnest, straight-ahead kind of guy.”

He was known universally by his nickname, Ace, bestowed upon him by youngsters after he struck out at age 12 in a baseball game.

“At first, it was a joke to poke fun at how badly I played,” he said in a 1984 interview, “but the name stuck.”

When LeGardeur was a teenager, his grandmother bought land around Bayou Liberty, and he and his brother, George, were sent up there to help out. “He got to live in the country, he worked in the victory garden and milked the cows,” Lili LeGardeur said. “He just loved it. It was the highlight of his young life.”

He graduated from Metairie Park Country Day School in 1947 and earned an engineering degree from Yale University in 1951, when the United States was embroiled in the Korean war. He joined the Army and served as a second lieutenant in Korea with the Corps of Engineers.

When he returned to civilian life, he started as an engineer at Avondale Shipyards. In the mid-1950s, he joined Carl E. Woodward Construction Co., and he became president and CEO when Carl Woodward retired, said his wife, Wendy LeGardeur.

The firm was innovative because it had everything – engineering, architecture and construction – under one roof, Case said. This operating method saved time and resulted in better relations between the architects who designed the project and the people who were building it, he said: “I found out that being friends with people in the field and respecting them as they would respect me, we would never have many problems.”

To reflect this method of doing business, the firm became Woodward Design + Build in 2011. It was instrumental in developing much of the Elmwood business and shopping area.

LeGardeur, who retired in 2016, “loved the building industry,” Case said. “He liked building things; he was almost like a kid with Lego blocks. He was a workaholic. He liked for everybody to be there. We worked early, we worked late and we worked a lot of weekends in the early days.”

Even though LeGardeur was the boss, he was never condescending, his daughter said. “That really moved me. … On the job, he would respect you and talk to you like an equal and listen to what you had to say. … When he talked with you, he was engaged with you.”

Survivors include his wife, Wendy LeGardeur; two sons, Armand LeGardeur of New York City and Wendell LeGardeur of New Orleans; three daughters, Leslie Dudley of Covington, Lili LeGardeur of New Orleans and Stella Mimi LeGardeur-Easton of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi; 10 grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

A funeral will be held Friday at 2 p.m. at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. Visitation will begin at noon.