Retired businessman Martin de Laureal, Sr., 73, a prominent civic leader and community volunteer, was killed Saturday morning in a helicopter crash in southwest Alaska, where he was on a fishing trip with friends.
The Bell 206B helicopter that was carrying de Laureal, three passengers and the pilot crashed in the Naknek River around 9:30 a.m., shortly after taking off from the King Salmon Airport, according to Alaska State Police. De Laureal was the only fatality.
The cause of the crash is unknown, but visibility may have been hampered by fog at the time of takeoff, according to local media reports. A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board’s regional office in Alaska said investigators would be looking into weather as a factor.
De Laureal was in Alaska at the time of the crash with new friends he’d met in North Carolina, where he and his wife, Evelyn, own a house, according to his longtime friend Ben Smallpage.
“He was larger than life,” said Smallpage, who has known de Laureal since college. “Everyone he met was a friend.”
De Laureal spent his career at Metairie-based Stewart Enterprises and rose to become a senior executive at the company, overseeing investor relations and helping grow Stewart into the country’s second-largest provider of funeral and cemetery products. He remained with the company for several years after its 2013 acquisition by Houston-based Service Corp. International before retiring.
“He was one of the most humble, self-effacing people, with a warm, friendly personality,” said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, where de Laureal was a former board member and board chair. “When he walked into a room, he would just light it up and everyone responded to his personality.”
De Laureal was active in several civic and charitable organizations. He served on the board of the Metropolitan Crime Commission for more than a decade, including four years as chair, and was active in efforts to rebuild the city’s public schools in the years after Hurricane Katrina.
“He was a great leader and full of life,” Goyeneche said. “He loved to travel and do new things. He was always pedal to the metal.”
He was also known for his love of his native New Orleans, where he raised his family and where his three grown sons, and their families, now live.
He is survived by his wife, Evelyn; and his sons, Martin de Laureal Jr., president of First Horizon Advisors, Henry de Laureal, and Jonathan de Laureal and their spouses; and several grandchildren.
Arrangements are pending.