Grambling State News

Grambling, Louisiana native Jon-Al Duplantier and his wife, Devra Mouton Duplantier, believe that everyone should have a chance to reach their full potential and positively contribute to society.

He credits God for being the driving force behind the couple’s decision to create two $40,000 endowments recently established at Grambling State University (GSU) in the name of the Duplantier and Mouton (Devra’s maiden name) families to go toward the school’s GAP Scholarship Fund.

“My wife and I are grateful for everything God has provided to us, and as faithful stewards, we are committed to sharing it with others in need,” Duplantier said. “All the credit goes to God. This isn’t about us, it’s about Him.”

Duplantier, who earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from GSU in 1989, went on to earn his juris doctorate in Law from LSU. He retired after 28 years working for energy companies, including as president of Rental Tools and Well Services at Parker Drilling. He had previously served as Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, and General Counsel at Parker Drilling.

Before that, Duplantier spent almost two decades with ConocoPhillips, serving in a number of senior legal, commercial, and environmental roles that included posts in the United States, Indonesia, and Dubai.

He currently sits on the Board of Directors for Kodiak Gas Services, Inc., Sitio Royalties, Stellar Bancorp, and AltaGas Ltd.

When asked about his professional journey, Duplantier credits growing up in Grambling and attending Grambling State University as contributing factors to his professional accomplishments.

“Grambling helped build up my confidence,” Duplantier said. “When I was 18 years old, if I had left Grambling and gone to a big, predominately white school, I probably would have developed into a different type of person. I would have been trying to fit in at a critical point in my adult development.”

“But because I didn’t have to go and try to fit in anywhere, I could just be who I was comfortable being at that time. I was able to spend time with my friends and family in an environment that was familiar and comfortable.”

Duplantier met his wife the summer before his senior year at Grambling Laboratory High School in her hometown of Opelousas, Louisiana, and 40 years later they are still going strong.

“Devra and I met the year before we went to college,” Duplantier said. “So, we wrote and mailed letters for about a year before we both arrived at Grambling as freshmen in 1985. We dated in college and the first two years of law school before we got married. We’ve been married for 33 years and in each other’s lives for 40 of my 57 years.”

Duplantier said a charity event he and his wife attended sparked their desire to concentrate more on a focused approach to giving back to others.

“A few years ago, Devra and I had a realization after going to a charity event, a Black-Tie Gala for a group called Attack Poverty,” Duplantier said. “They were raising money for charity, and they had a number of posters up on the wall, and a couple of those posters had statistics — statistics that just blew us away.”

“One statistic was that if kids don’t read on grade level by the time they’re in the third grade, they’re four times less likely than their peers to graduate high school. And the other stat was 70% of U.S. inmates — people who are locked up — read at the fourth-grade level or lower.”

That led Duplantier and his wife to volunteer at Life Change Church (where they are members) to provide leadership, coordination, and oversight for a summer reading lab for kids in grades 1-3. The church provides space, resources, computers, and volunteers.

“Our church is in a lower socio-economic zone of Houston. For three summers now, from Monday through Friday for eight weeks, Devra and I, along with the support of other volunteers, teach kids how to read,” he said. “These are not all kids from the church, some of the kids are from the community and do not attend any church.”

“We provide them with an individual Apple MacBook or Google Chromebook and personal subscriptions to an online reading program. The kids think they’re playing games, but they’re actually learning to recognize letters, recognize sounds, recognize words, and ultimately, they learn to read.”

That reading program is held from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. and includes lunch.

“We have partnered with the Houston Food Bank which delivers a healthy, nutritional meal for the kids for free,” Duplantier said. “For those kids who attend most of the sessions, the church gifts them the computer so that they continue to work on the online course.”

“Our first summer we had 13 kids, and the second we had 19. Then last summer we had 25, so it’s growing.”

The Duplantiers began their efforts to give back to Grambling State University in earnest four years ago.

“It’s in our hearts now that we need to do more to help people,” Duplantier said. “Throughout my career, I’ve met some really smart people who, had they been given a chance earlier, their careers would have been far more productive and successful than they were. They did fine, but they were starting from a hole — people who had to borrow money to go to school, people who didn’t know who they were at 25. They were always trying to fit in, and it took them longer than their corporate peers to find steady footing.”

“Dev and I talked to (former GSU and current University of Louisiana System President) Rick Gallot, and to (current GSU President) Dr. Martin Lemelle, Jr. This started with Rick about four years ago when he told us about a problem at GSU. He said the university was admitting kids that arrive on campus and stay for a couple of weeks while their financial aid packages are sorted. But oftentimes, GSU approves as much aid as it is capable of giving them, and the students’ parents write a check for as much as they can write, and yet there remains a balance of approximately $2,000 – $2,500 they can’t cover. Consequently, the kids go home through no fault of their own.”

After that conversation with Gallot, the Duplantiers started giving $10,000 per year to provide financial assistance to four such students every year to get the $2,500 the students needed.

Then last football season the Duplantiers attended the Grambling-Texas Southern football game in Houston and spent quite a bit of time talking with GSU Vice President for Advancement and Innovation, Brandon A. Logan, and decided to establish the Mouton and Duplantier endowments.

“The thought was, because of the availability of federal and state matching funds, if we could give Grambling $40,000, the university can turn that into $100,000, which would help create a long-lasting perpetuity of $2,500 for kids in the spring and the fall.”

“While we’re no longer paying for four GAP Scholarships every year, we are happy that each of the two endowments will pay for one student each fall and spring forever. We are very grateful to my brother, André, and his wife, Lestavia — both GSU graduates — who decided to contribute $20,000. Devra and I matched that amount to create the Duplantier Family Scholarship. We funded the Mouton Family Scholarship on our own.”

“Our kids went to college and graduated debt free,” Duplantier said. “This is a way for us to help other kids graduate with less debt, or no debt, as well.”

The Mouton Family scholarship was established in memory of Devra’s parents, Harold and Charlotte Mouton.

“My wife’s mother and father were lifelong educators,” Duplantier said. “Her mom was a high school English and Drama teacher, and her dad worked with special needs kids for a long time before becoming a high school administrator.”

“So, Dev and I created the endowed Mouton Family Scholarship to honor and respect the memory of my wife’s mom and dad for what they have done and what they meant to kids in and around St. Landry Parish. They both — her mom and dad — went to and graduated from GSU.”

The endowed Duplantier Family Scholarship honors the memory of the Duplantier brothers’ parents. Their father, John Allen Duplantier (known on campus as “Mr. D.”), was a longtime Grambling State professor. Their mother, Gwendolyn Veleta Duplantier, (known as “Ms. D.”), spent 30 years as a secretary and mentor in the Basic Studies Department.

“I feel blessed to have grown up in Grambling and be in the position I’m in today,” Duplantier said. “And I do not take my blessings for granted. Devra and I have been given much. Giving back to GSU and helping kids in need of financial assistance stay enrolled and graduate with less debt is one way we pay those blessings forward.”