SPN Leadership Team

Thomas A. Roe, Founding Chairman, 1927-2000

SPN's Founding Chairman, Thomas Anderson Roe, Jr., was born and raised in Greenville County, South Carolina. Everyone who knew Tom credited his remarkable vision and down-to-earth nature for his many successes. He was an outstanding businessman and philanthropist and a devoted friend of freedom and free enterprise both at home and abroad.

Tom graduated from Greenville's Furman University in 1948, worked as a research assistant in the University's cancer research project funded by a Carnegie Foundation grant, and co-authored several research papers. He also earned a business degree from LaSalle Extension University and a certificate in advanced studies from the Brookings Institution Program on Urban Policy.

Tom became Chairman of the Board of Builder Marts of America, a company he transformed from a small building material supply company into an international corporation. He served as Vice President of American Holdings, a firm with ice cream, refrigerator, and furniture manufacturing interests in the United States, along with land holding and air cargo operations in the Dominican Republic.

Tom was active in the South Carolina Republican Party from 1954 to 1964, serving numerous terms as a Greenville County Committeeman. Gradually disillusioned with practical politics, he was impressed with the work of national think tanks to promote sound ideas as a basis for prudent public policies.

In the Reagan era, Tom was considered a national player in U.S. policy, advising former President Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He became a Trustee and played an active role in the development of The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC. In the mid-80s, he founded the South Carolina Policy Council with a group of Greenville-area businessmen.

Tom's contributions to his state and country were recognized in numerous ways, including an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Furman University in 1980, the Order of the Palmetto of the State of South Carolina in 1995, and the Clare Boothe Luce Award from The Heritage Foundation in 1999.

Tom was dedicated to State Policy Network and its mission to extend and strengthen the community of state-based policy organizations. He worked tirelessly to make SPN a success, serving as Chairman for many years and providing untold hours of informal support in the early days of the state think tank movement. And, he provided funding through his own Roe Foundation, which continues to provide financial support to free-market policy groups across the country.

In 1992, SPN established the annual Roe Awards in Tom's honor to recognize leadership, innovation and accomplishment in the free market state think tank community.

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