Richard Stalder

Richard Lee Stalder
Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections
In office
1992–2008
Succeeded by James Myles "Jimmy" LeBlanc
Personal details
Born (1951-03-23) March 23, 1951
Place of birth missing
Nationality American
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Pamela Davis Stalder
Children

Jonathan Eli Stalder

Christopher Davis Stalder
Parents Edgar A. and Mildred Strahm Stalder
Residence Zachary, East Baton Rouge Parish
Louisiana, USA
Alma mater Louisiana State University
Occupation Penologist

Richard Lee Stalder (born March 23, 1951)[1] is the former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections, a position to which he was appointed in 1992 by then Governor Edwin W. Edwards. The position is now held by James M. LeBlanc, Stalder's former colleague.

Stalder is one of four children of Edgar A. Stalder, who died on his 92nd birthday on December 13, 2015, and the former Mildred A. Strahm (also born 1923) of Topeka, Kansas. Edgar Stalder was reared on a farm along the Kansas-Nebraska border. After distinguished service under General George S. Patton, with the United States Army in World War II. He received the Silver Star, was recognized by the historian Stephen E. Ambrose with the placing of Stalder's war memoir at both the Eisenhower Center of the University of New Orleans and in the National World War II Museum in Washington, D.C., he worked for the United States Department of Agriculture in New Orleans and later Washington, D.C. Richard Stalder has three siblings, Robert Stalder and his wife, Pattie, of Westmoreland, Kansas; Ronald Stalder of Austin, Texas, and Susan Brinker and her husband, Brian, of Stillwater, Oklahoma.[2]

In 1971, Richard Stalder began working as a prison officer to earn money while he was attending Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He worked his way to the positions of federal programs administrator, corrections budget officer, and the superintendent of Louisiana Training Institute in Monroe, Louisiana, deputy warden of Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, Louisiana, and warden of David Wade Correctional Center in Homer.[3] in Claiborne Parish, named for the late American general David Wade. From 1998 to 2000, Stalder was the president of the American Correctional Association.[4]

Stalder was the choice of a new group founded in 1991 and known as Louisiana Wardens and Superintendent (LAWS) to head the corrections agency. The driving force behind LAWS was Burl Cain, a long-term warden at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, under whom Stalder had previously worked as deputy warden at the Dixon Correctional Institute. Stalder was at first reluctant to take on the statewide position because he preferred to remain warden at David Wade Correctional Institute, the only prison in Louisiana at the time to have been accredited by the American Correctional Association. Stalder's colleagues persuaded him to meet with Edwards, then a candidate for a fourth nonconsecutive term as governor, to discuss the secretary's position. After some delay, Edwards appointed Stalder; the position had been traditionally given to political supporters of the governor.[5]

Stalder is a registered Republican voter in East Baton Rouge Parish.[1] In 2003, he was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.[4] Burl Cain was inducted into the Hall of Fame the previous year in 2002. He resides in Zachary with his wife, the former Pamela Davis[2] (also born 1951). The oouple has two sons, Jonathan Eli Stalder (born 1978) and Christopher Davis Stalder (born 1981).

References

  1. 1 2 "Click Richard Stalder, March 1951". voterportal.sos.la.gov. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved December 15, 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Edgar A. Stalder". The Baton Rouge Advocate. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  3. ""Richard L. Stalder: Defining a Vision for Louisiana"". highbeam.com. June 1, 2003. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Richard Stalder". lapoliticalmuseum.com. Retrieved December 15, 2013.
  5. Dennis Shere, Cain's Redemption: A Story of Hope and Transformation in America's Bloodiest Prison, pp. 44-45. Northfield Publishing Company, 2005; ISBN 978-1-881273-24-0. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
Preceded by
Missing
Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Richard Lee Stalder
19922008
Succeeded by
James Myles "Jimmy" LeBlanc


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