Abbeville recognizes Sellers’ 50 years

Gene Sellers opened his own engineering firm in 1965.
Now, 50 years and thousands of projects later, Sellers is still in the front row at Abbeville City Council meetings, ready to inform the mayor and council of the next plan.
Sellers has served as the city engineering advisor, as well as in the same capacity for the Vermilion Parish Police Jury, for nearly the entirety of his five decades in business.
Shortly after offering an update on a sewer extension job during Tuesday’s Abbeville City Council meeting, Sellers received some recognition for his long-standing relationship with the city.
“That’s quite an accomplishment for any individual,” Abbeville Mayor Mark Piazza said of Sellers’ longevity. “Those years with the city and police jury included literally hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements.
“We really wanted to do something special for him because we really appreciate all he has done.”
Piazza, along with the five city council members, presented Sellers with a Key to the City and a proclamation that Jan. 20, 2015, be known as Eugene Marshall Sellers, Sr. Day.
“We invite all the citizens in Vermilion Parish to reflect upon and honor,” Piazza read during the proclamation, “the lifetime achievements of Eugene Marshall Sellers Sr. and the impact he has had on the City of Abbeville.”
Many of Sellers family members attended the meeting. With the presentation being a surprise, Sellers said he wasn’t sure why his family members were in the audience.
“I thought they were here to try to petition the city to fire me,” Sellers joked.
Sellers reflected on his time with the city.
“I don’t know if anyone remembers who the mayor was when I started?,” Sellers asked before offering an answer. “It was Mayor Clement (Bourgeois Jr.). He was the interim mayor, taking over for Roy Theriot.”
Sellers also vividly recalled his first job for the city.
“I got a $6,500 grant to do a city-wide drainage project,” Sellers said. “I still have the map for it in my office today.”
Sellers, born in Meaux and a graduate of Abbeville High School, served in the U.S. Navy and is a Korean War Veteran. He married Phallie Scroggins, with whom he had five children, Kathleen, Elizabeth, Eugene Jr., Susan and Ann. After living in Lafayette, the Sellers family returned to Abbeville in 1977.
Gene Sellers Jr. said it was an honor for the family to be present at Tuesday’s meeting and special to see his father’s work recognized.
“We were very proud to witness the presentation of such an honor bestowed upon our father,” Sellers Jr. said. “It was very emotional for him to be honored and we were very thankful to the mayor and council for acknowledging his hard work and his personal and professional dedication to the city, parish and community over the past 50 plus years. It has been a pleasure to watch him enjoy the hard work that he does for the City of Abbeville, Vermilion Parish and other municipalities in our region. He has exhibited to all of his family and colleagues that hard work and a firm commitment to helping others can be personally fulfilling and rewarding.”
During his time as a Vermilion Parish Police Juror and now a city councilman, Louis Joe Hardy has worked with Sellers for more than 40 years.
“I want to thank you for all you have done for me with the parish and now with the city,” Hardy said during Tuesday’s meeting. “Many times I called you, even on Sundays, and you were always there.
“Thanks again for all that you do.”
Sellers has taken part in thousands of infrastructure improvements in the city, as well as beautification projects in Magdalen Square. Piazza said Sellers’ impact stretches well beyond work.
“It’s not all about business,” Piazza said. “Gene is a very generous, humble man. Seldom do I ever go to a fundraising event and Mr. Sellers is not there. He is always there and always participating.
“He has been very generous to a lot of the benefits and causes throughout Abbeville and Vermilion Parish.”
Sellers Jr. said it is simply a genuine passion for this area and its people that have helped Sellers be so successful for so long.
“We all know that there are so many qualities that a person must possess to enjoy the success that he has experienced,” Sellers Jr. said, “Most notably he is always doing his very best in providing quality work with limitless hours of services for his clients; treating his clients and business associates with dignity, respect and appreciation and possibly the most important is the true love for his work, the community and the people of Abbeville and Vermilion Parish.
“I know that our father would not consider himself or any project successful unless it would be deemed equally successful in his clients eyes.”