Regents board member Roland Toups to address Southeastern grads
Contact: Rene Abadie
11/29/06
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HAMMOND – Baton Rouge business executive Roland M. Toups, who serves as chairman of the Louisiana State Board of Regents, will deliver the keynote address at Southeastern Louisiana University’s winter commencement on Saturday, Dec. 9.
Southeastern will confer associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees on more than 1,200 students at the 10 a.m. ceremony in the University Center.
The commencement ceremony will feature the introduction of this year’s class of “Golden Graduates,” members of the Class of 1956 and previous years, who will lead the new graduates into the University Center dressed in golden academic regalia. The Golden Graduate tradition was initiated in the December 1998 commencement ceremony.
As chairman of the Louisiana State Board of Regents, Toups supervises a 15-member policy-making body that coordinates all public higher education in Louisiana.
Toups has served as chairman and chief executive officer of Turner Industries, LLC of Baton Rouge since 1968. The company is a $1 billion international industrial services firm specializing in construction, maintenance, equipment and rigging operations and other related activities. From 1964 to 1968, he worked as project manager for Ethyl Corporation’s multi-million dollar hydrocarbon expansion project at the Baton Rouge plant. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, he worked at Cape Kennedy, Fla., in the U.S. space program and in the development of the defense system’s Atlas/Titan missiles.
A graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, earning both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering, he has been recognized by the university with the Dean George C. Griffin Award for Outstanding Community Service and has been named to the Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni. He serves on the institute’s President’s Advisory Board. He has also been named to the Louisiana State University Engineering Hall of Distinction, the LSU Construction Hall of Fame and the Catholic High School Hall of Fame. Toups has been presented with the National Conference for Community and Justice’s Brotherhood Award, the Volunteer Activist of Baton Rouge Award and the Inter-Civic Council’s Golden Deeds Award.
Active in civic affairs, Toups serves as chairman of the board or president of numerous civic, religious and educational organizations, including the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, Greater Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, Louisiana Chemical Industry Alliance, United Way, Rotary Club of Baton Rouge, the Mayor’s Anti-Drug Task Force and the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge Capital Campaign.
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