 He was a professor at Saint Stanislaus College, a Catholic high school in Bay St. Louis, from 1967 to 1976, and earned a Master of Arts degree in Guidance and Counseling from Xavier University of Louisiana in 1973.In 1976, he was elected to the first of three terms (1976–83) as the provincial superior of the Society of the Divine Word's Southern Province.He was also Vice-President of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men from 1979 to 1983.