Gus Weill

Gus Weill, Sr. (March 12, 1933 – April 13, 2018), was an American author, public relations specialist, and political consultant originally from Lafayette, Louisiana.

Background Weill graduated in 1955 from Louisiana State University and then completed United States Army Counter Intelligence School. He was a first lieutenant in the Counter Intelligence Corps in Frankfurt, Germany, until his military discharge in 1957. He also groomed other public relations specialists, who became his competitors, such as Raymond Strother, manager of the Gary Hart presidential campaign, and Roy Fletcher, affiliated with Patrick J. Buchanan's insurgent Republican campaigns. Weill convinced McKeithen to implement the state agency, the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, or CODOFIL, an idea originally proposed by U.S. Representative James Domengeaux of Lafayette.

The Cajuns was inspired by a suggestion from James Carville: "Gus was always telling stories, from the first day I met him. There aren't many people who can tell you the same story, like, eleven times and still make you want to hear it again. He's the best raconteur I've ever met." Flesh with Dana Isaacson Fuhrer Seed Love and Other Guilts: The Poetry of Gus Weill Parradiddle: A Novel To Bury a Cousin A Woman's Eyes You Are My Sunshine: The Jimmie Davis Story, An Affectionate Biography The Weill Side of Louisiana Politics: Gus Weill Remembers

Personal life Weill and his wife, the former Ann Cherry, had a son, Gus Weill, Jr. (1962–2004), who was an attorney and public relations specialist in New York City, who suffered from depression and committed suicide at the age of forty-two.

The Weills resided in New York City since December 2002. They have a grandson, Gus Weill, III.

Awards In 1983, Weill was named to the Douglas L. Manship Hall of Fame in the LSU School of Mass Communications. In 1994, he was named a "Louisiana Legend" by the PBS program that he hosted for many years. In 1996, Weill was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield. For his role in handling more than 350 campaigns, the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame presented Weill in 2017 with the "Friend of John McKeithen Award."

Erik Spanberg describes Weill, accordingly:

All his life, Gus Weill has been distracted by a restless mind incapable of sticking to one subject for long. That peripatetic nature led to turns as a political consultant, an advertising executive, a gubernatorial adviser, television and radio host, poet, biographer, and now, at last, full-time novelist.