I was born on January 1, 1931 in the village of Delcambre, LA; the second child and only son of Rene and Julia(Eula) Segura Lachaussie.  The family moved to New Iberia, LA in 1940.  I graduated from New Iberia High School in 1948, and enrolled at LSU that same year.  I enlisted in the USAF in January 1951.  I attended Radio Operator School at Keesler AFB.  I became a morse code instructor at the school upon graduation.  I was reassigned to Korea in late 1951, where I became a member of a three man team providing close air support to various front line infantry units.  I was reassigned to a radar station in Wisconsin in early 1953 where I remained until my discharge in January 1955.  I met and married my wife Marlene while stationed in Wisconsin.  I enrolled at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette after my discharge, where I majored in accounting and received my bachelor's degree in February 1957.  I joined the Westinghouse Graduate Student Program immediately upon graduation.  I held various accounting, programming, and management positions in Pittsburgh, PA and Europe during my 32 year Westinghouse career.  I did graduate work toward an MBA at Duquesne University during my early Westinghouse career.  After my retirement from Westinghouse I did software engineering consulting for several years until I finally retired in 1999.

Marlene and I are the proud parents of three sons (Rene, James Jr., and Pierre) and a daughter (Michelle).  We are the proud grandparents of five fine grandchildren (Tyler, Trisha, Josh, and Courtney Lachaussie and Austin Williams).