Education, Work History
Like his brothers, Long was educated in the Winn Parish public schools. He graduated in 1962 from Winnfield Senior High School and entered Northwestern State University in Natchitoches on an football scholarship. He obtained his bachelor of science degree in education in 1966, the year of his father's death. For the next four years, Long (1) taught at Houma Junior High School at Houma in Terrebonne Parish in south Louisiana and (2) taught and coached at Leesville High School in Leesville, the seat of Vernon Parish in western Louisiana.
Long left teaching to become an insurance agent, a representative of the State Farm Company. He is a lifetime member of the President’s Club, which is earned by fewer than 2 percent of insurance agents nationally. While in the insurance business, Long was for nine years a volunteer for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Northwestern State University. FCA, a national organization devoted to college, high school and junior-high students, attempts to instill moral and spiritual values in young people to prepare them for their future. In July 1999, Long retired from business to serve full time as the FCA representative for Rapides, Grant, Winn, Natchitoches, Sabine, and five other parishes.
In the summer of 1966, Long married the former Rose Landry. The couple has three grown children, Andrea Phillips, Pamela Jordan, and Richard Gerald Long (born 1976). They also had eight grandsons as of November 2007.
Long has spoken before schools, civic organizations, churches, and senior citizens organizations. He has also been an interim Baptist pastor for four churches in the Natchitoches area. He is considered both a fiscal and social conservative.
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