Foreign Trade Pioneer Alonzo Ensenat, 88, Dies
Times Picayune 09-24-1996

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Alonzo G. Ensenat, a leader in the New Orleans international trade community
for many years, died Sunday at his home. He was 88.

Mr. Ensenat began his career with Sears, Roebuck International in Chicago and
later worked for Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. in Akron, Ohio. He was president
of Hemisphere Trading Co. in New Orleans until founding Ensenat & Co., an
import-export firm, in 1947. He was president of the company until retiring in
1980.

Mr. Ensenat was a member of the committee that organized International House
in New Orleans in 1943 and was on its first board of directors. In 1945, he
was an organizer of the International Trade Mart and was one of its first
tenants when the building opened at 2 Canal St. in 1963. International House
and the International Trade Mart later merged to form the World Trade Center
of New Orleans.

In 1946, Mr. Ensenat was an organizer of the Foreign Trade Zone, a duty-free
zone that helped increase traffic through the Port of New Orleans after World
War II.

He was on the executive committee of the Mississippi Valley World Trade
Council, which sponsored annual conferences in New Orleans to promote American
exports in the 1950s and '60s. He was president and general chairman of the
conference in 1960 when it received the U.S. Department of Commerce's "E"
Award for excellence in promoting exports.

He also was a charter member and past president of the World Trade Club of New
Orleans.

Mr. Ensenat was born in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, and moved to New Orleans in
1913. He attended St. Stanislaus School, St. Aloysius High School, Tulane
University and the University of Chicago Business School.

Mr. Ensenat was involved in theatrical productions at Le Petit Theatre du
Vieux Carre beginning in 1932 and was president of the theater in 1988-89. He
was a former board member of the New Orleans Area Council of the Boy Scouts, a
former director of the Sociedad Espanola and a past president of the Mexico
Society.

He was chosen first reader, chairman and president of the First Church of
Christ, Scientist in New Orleans.

Survivors include his wife, Genevieve Burnham Ensenat; a son, Donald Burnham
Ensenat; a daughter, Catherine Ensenat Miller of Greenwich, Conn.; and three
grandchildren.

A funeral will be held Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home,
5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. Visitation will begin at noon. Burial will be in
Metairie Cemetery.