Halfway through his education and training to become a wildlife enforcement agent, a cherished dream of his, Byron Dore of Avery Island was in his element.

The 24-year-old outdoorsman was with some friends in the marsh of Iberia Parish, enjoying the outdoors as so many young men have done for generations in the Teche Area. He was deer hunting with his brother-in-law in his boat and two friends in another boat.

Then tragedy struck. After he dropped off the deer hunter in his boat and headed for a vantage point for himself, there was a boating mishap caused by an underwater hazard. Dore drowned.

That was Feb. 9, 2008. The young man who was in the 23rd state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Training Academy Class never has been forgotten by family, friends or the state agency he sought to join.

The LDWF Enforcement Division dedicated a flagpole in his memory Wednesday in a solemn ceremony in front of the new LDWF Law Enforcement Training and Emergency Response Complex at the Waddill Outdoor Education Center in Baton Rouge. Many of those same family, friends and department personnel attended.

The Dore family, the McIlhenny Co. and the Louisiana Wildlife Agents Association donated the money for the flagpole, which bears a plaque that reads: 

“In Memory of 

Cadet Byron Dore 

“Class 23” 

5/2/1983 – 2/9/2008 

Donated by the Dore Family, McIlhenny Co. and the LWAA Association”

Cpl. David Boudreaux, 36, of Broussard, formerly of Avery Island, was one of the speakers. The 13-year veteran with the LDWF Enforcement Division had been a wildlife enforcement agent three years when he responded to the report of a boating accident in the parish that fateful day in February 2008.

“I’ve responded to many boating accidents over my career. It was very surreal. Once you arrive on the scene and see the faces of people you know and it’s your best friend who is the victim…,” Boudreaux said Thursday afternoon, his voice trailing off.

“That is a feeling like no other, let me tell you,” he said.

Boudreaux and Dore grew up together with a shared passion for the outdoors.  

“Me and Byron were best friends, probably since kindergarten at (the old) Avery Island Elementary,” he said, noting he was a year older than Dore.

“I became a wildlife agent first,” he said.

They also worked together for several summers at the McIlhenny Co. along with another good friend, John Simmons.

Dore, the son of Randal and Eleanor Dore, decided to pursue that career at 24. The education and training is a six-month course held then in a portable building on the site where the flagpole was dedicated. Midway through the course he went home on leave that trainees were given on weekends.

He never returned.

Boudreaux, president of the Louisiana Wildlife Agents Association, was the driving force behind the event this past week.

“I really felt compelled to recognize him in some way,” he said.

Such recognition wasn’t possible on the memorial saluting fallen wildlife enforcement agents because the young man from Avery Island wasn’t fully commissioned by the LDWF, Boudreaux said.

“I felt compelled to put his name somewhere,” he said again.

The LDWF Law Enforcement Training and Emergency Response Complex project that was in its planning stages several years ago gave him the idea to have his friend’s name associated with a flagpole. Cadets raise and lower the flag daily in a military-like ceremony, he reasoned, so inscribing Dore’s name on a plaque could serve as inspiration to them to push on and become wildlife agents.

He ran his proposal by the board of the LWAA. It got a thumbs up.

Boudreaux said he reached out to the family, to the McIlhenny Co. and to the LWAA. The McIlhenny Co. donated a substantial amount of money, he said, and the family and state agency covered the rest of the cost.

The day arrived for the flagpole dedication. Those attending included Dore’s widow, Jenee Jordan; daughter, Kali Larson, who was a young girl when her father died; Dore’s sisters, Stephanie Leleux and Valerie Hebert; an uncle; two aunts, and many nieces and nephews.

LDWF Secretary Jack Montegut said, “Future cadets will be reminded of Byron when they use this flagpole every day during their training to raise and lower the American and Louisiana flags. I’d like to thank the Dore family, the McIlhenny Co. and the Wildlife Agents Association for donating the funds necessary to make this happen and to let Byron’s memory live on at the academy.”

Col. Sammy Martin, head of the LDWF Enforcement Division, took the microphone and said, “By all accounts Byron was well on his way to a successful enforcement career with the department before his life ended tragically. From listening to those who knew him personally, his classmates and his training, he had a love for the outdoors and a strong work ethic. Those two characteristics usually make good wildlife agents.”

Boudreaux told the crowd gathered for the dedication that anyone his friend met drew an instant liking to Dore.

“I think one of the reasons why  that is, and he admitted it, he lived each day to his fullest. That was his motto,” Boudreaux said. “I can’t emphasize enough about his passion for the outdoors, hunting and fishing. That’s what drove myself and him to be wildlife agents.”

Another speaker that day at the Byron Dore Memorial Flagpole was Simmons. The McIlhenny Co. manager of agriculture, the third member of the family working at the family-owned worldwide business on Avery Island (Simmons’ father, Tony Simmons, is CEO, and his cousin, Harold Osborn, is executive vice president), spoke from the heart and soul.

“It was a really nice thing that happened today,” Simmons said later that afternoon. “The people who spoke were his classmates, his sister, Stephanie Leleux, his trainers at the academy and myself. I was privileged enough to speak.”

Simmons described his friend’s personality as “infectious.”

“He put a lot of life in his years even if he didn’t have a long life,” he said. “He was really proud to be on his way to being a game warden. It was a neat milestone for him to reach for. He loved the outdoors. Somebody said today while his death was a tragedy, he was doing what he enjoyed. He was out in the marsh in South Louisiana.

“He was a helluva guy and I miss him every day. I’m glad I got to be his friend even if he got taken from us too soon,” Simmons said.

“I was an usher at his wedding and a pallbearer at his funeral,” he said.

With Dore’s name forever affixed to the flagpole, his story has gone full circle. “He started his career at Waddill and ended his career at Waddill,” Boudreaux said.