Kevin Couhig, the first parish president of West Feliciana Parish, died Monday.
Couhig, who was 73, took office in 2013 after the parish switched from the police jury system to a home-rule charter plan of government.Â
He retired from office in December 2018, with about a year left in his second term, to spend more time with family, he told ¶¶Òõh.Â
"Today we mourn the passing of Kevin Couhig. Kevin was a natural leader, and he was the right leader at the right time, because we were transitioning to a new form of government, said current West Feliciana Parish President Kenny Havard in a statement Wednesday.Â
"He helped lay that foundation and led West Feliciana through that transition period," Havard said. "It was not an easy task, but he did it. He left West Feliciana better than he found it."Â
"On behalf of the parish, I would like to thank his family for allowing him to serve this great parish. We are forever grateful," Havard said in the statement. "Our prayers are now with his family."Â
Before Couhig became parish president, he was the assistant secretary of economic development for ¶¶Òõh governors David Treen and Edwin Edwards.Â
A graduate of St. Francisville High School and Georgetown University, Couhig said in 2018 that implementing the new home-rule charter plan of government in West Feliciana Parish was one of the things he was proudest of.Â
He was also proud, he said, of working to achieve more funds for the parish from the ¶¶Òõh Tax Commission using taxes collected from the Entergy nuclear plant in St. Francisville.
Couhig launched Source Capital in the late 1980s and invested in more than 130 small businesses in the Baton Rouge region. Â