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ENID, OK — Jere Gigoux was born Sept. 8, 1929, in Enid, Okla., the son of Gene and Viola Loretta Gigoux and died Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013. He was the great-grandson of French immigrant Pierre Francoise Gigoux.
He grew up on the family farm north of Carrier and graduated from Carrier High School. He held a Bachelor of Science degree from Oklahoma State and a master’s degree from Phillips University. He also attended Northern Oklahoma College at Tonkawa and Fresno State in California.
He was a veteran of the Oklahoma National Guard and served in the U.S. Air Force.
Gigoux’s 42-year career in public education began in Lahoma, Okla., in 1954, where he was classroom teacher and athletic coach He also served in this capacity in Madera and Fresno, Calif., and Pioneer school, near Waukomis. He was principal at Pleasant Vale for six years before coming into Enid Public Schools as high school counselor and psychology teacher. In 1973, he became counselor/registrar at Waller Junior High and continued thusly until retirement in 1996. For the next three years he traveled as a dance host for Holland America Cruise Lines and Delta Queen Steamboat Company of New Orleans.
While at Enid High School in 1966, Gigoux was sent, along with other counselors from Oklahoma and Texas, to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where he completed the counselors’ orientation seminar, becoming one of Oklahoma’s admission officers for the academy.
He also served as College Board Test Administrator for Enid and northwest Oklahoma and the football stadium announcer. In 1970, he was part of a summer study tour with American Institute for Foreign Study, wherein he earned graduate credits at Westminster College in London and from the universities of Paris and Rome. In 1964, he served on the State Counselors’ Advisory Board under state Superintendent Dr. Oliver Hodge.
After retirement from active farming and ranching, Gigoux owned and operated a horse-drawn carriage service for weddings, anniversaries, parades and other special occasions all over northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas.
This unique activity led to draft horse driving and management summer jobs with Knott’s Berry Farm in California, Acadia National Park in Maine, Mackinaw Island, Mich., and the Milwaukee, Wis., annual circus parade.
In 1971, Gigoux became a licensed fixtures broker but spent only two years in this profession. He was a basketball/baseball official during the 1960s and 70s.
He was married to Rita Dickerson of Tahlequah from 1954-1962 and to Ruth Long of Enid in 1973-74.
Surviving are one daughter, Venise Renee of Dallas, and one son, the late Daniel Alan, who died in 2008.
Jere has requested body donation, cremation and no memorial service.
(Submitted by family)
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