By Michael D. Wynne
Great women and men surround all of us every single day in Central Louisiana. Just because we may not know about every single person that we cross paths with daily doesn’t mean they don’t quietly make great contributions to the world around us.
Monte Chicola is one such example of a great CenLa citizen. He descends from one of the most prominent and important immigrant families in all of Louisiana, the Chicolas. Monte continues the family tradition of trying to make the world a better place for you and me.
Monte is the great grandson of Vincent Chicola (1852-1944) and Virginia Porto Chicola (1860-1944) who immigrated from Palermo, Sicily to Alexandria in 1913. Their son, Joseph Patrick “Joe” Chicola, Sr. (1887-1938), killed early on in a family dispute by gunshot, married Carrie Parise (1894-1969). They ran a longtime successful and profitable grocery store in Alexandria.
Monte’s parent’s, Nick George Chicola (1923-1985) and Olla Rae Montalbano Chicola (1928-2018) continued the family’s grocery store tradition for 40 years with the well-known Nick’s Food Center on Lee Street. The store profits provided for a good education for all of the Chicola children.
Olla Rae, originally from Bunkie, who was later recognized by President Clinton for her great contributions to the CenLa poor, was the driving force to help feed the hungry in Alexandria through her beloved Manna House “soup kitchen.” Manna House was actually created in the former Chicola grocery store on Lee Street (the parking lot was once the Chicola home!). Manna House continues to save thousands of people from hunger every year.
Nick and Olla Rae blind-dated just once before Nick was shipped off with the Army at the beginning of World War II. Nick actually fought on his family’s ancestral grounds in Italy during the war. Both of them waited till Nick got home when they married and later became the parents of 7 well-respected children, of which Monte was the third to last.
Monte, born in Alexandria, always had a job available to him at the grocery store, but he had greater plans for this world instead. “I did everything in the store, from stocking the shelves, to unloading the trucks, to running the cash registers, to even hanging and butchering the meat,” Monte shared. He ran the store after his father’s illness.
A 1975 graduate of Menard, Monte went on to NSU where he earned his computer and accounting degrees (plus played the trombone in the university band!).
Monte these days teaches an IBM programming course back at NSU with the focus being on AI. But, way back then, he rightly predicted the future use of computer technology. He soon joined up with Dave Woodring and created the REALVISION Software Company, a company that was clearly ahead of its time. This company is all about digital media, things today (2026) that we just take for granted in using that were unimaginable in the early 1990’s.
Through great efforts at trying to convince IBM of their advance and near “impossible” ideas, Monte finally won IBM over. In essence, Monte was working on developing facets of AI (yes, that AI) long before it was even called AI. In a quote taken by Bob Tompkins, “You’re not going to believe what AI will do in one year; Every six months it doubles its capacity in speed.”
But possibly Monte’s greatest single accomplishment is in the development of the creation of the digital photograph. He told me the lengthy and fascinating story of its creation process. His story told me of his incredible doggedness in trying to convince people of its now invaluable usefulness.
This article cannot cover anything near Monte’s complete life and many accomplishments; maybe I will cover more in a future. But let it suffice to say here that we are blessed to be able to call Monte a great CenLa neighbor.
