Overview
Biography of industrialist Wallace E. Carroll, written by B.C. alumnus, Edward D. Miller. Wallace E. Carroll is the namesake of Boston College's Carroll School of Management and was chairman and CEO of Katy Industries, Inc. Wallace Carroll was one of the earliest Boston College graduates to systematically build and lead a large, diversified business enterprise. Throughout his life he was committed to producing economic benefits rather than reaping their personal rewards. A business leader and philanthropist, he remained a private man intensely dedicated to the circle that formed his extended family. The son of a Taunton, Mass, blacksmith, Carroll worked as a bricklayer's helper and railroad worker while attending Boston College. He later pursued graduate studies in business at MIT, Harvard Business School, New York University and Northwestern University. Carroll worked for New York Telephone Cos. in the early '3os before joining a gage manufacturing company in Providence, R.I. in 1934. Two years later, the company sent him to manage sales in its Chicago branch. In the Midwest, he founded Size Control Cos., a gage manufacturing company, in 1941, which prospered supplying the war effort with machine parts. Using profits from his early ventures, Carroll acquired other metals and machine concerns, which comprise the core of Katy Industries, Inc., a congolmerate of more than 43 companies and divisions formed in 1970. He was also chairman emeritus of CRL, Inc., a firm privately held by the Carroll family, which includes American Machine and Science, Inc. and International Metals and Machine, Inc.
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Description
Biography of industrialist Wallace E. Carroll, written by B.C. alumnus, Edward D. Miller. Wallace E. Carroll is the namesake of Boston College's Carroll School of Management and was chairman and CEO of Katy Industries, Inc. Wallace Carroll was one of the earliest Boston College graduates to systematically build and lead a large, diversified business enterprise. Throughout his life he was committed to producing economic benefits rather than reaping their personal rewards. A business leader and philanthropist, he remained a private man intensely dedicated to the circle that formed his extended family. The son of a Taunton, Mass, blacksmith, Carroll worked as a bricklayer's helper and railroad worker while attending Boston College. He later pursued graduate studies in business at MIT, Harvard Business School, New York University and Northwestern University. Carroll worked for New York Telephone Cos. in the early '3os before joining a gage manufacturing company in Providence, R.I. in 1934. Two years later, the company sent him to manage sales in its Chicago branch. In the Midwest, he founded Size Control Cos., a gage manufacturing company, in 1941, which prospered supplying the war effort with machine parts. Using profits from his early ventures, Carroll acquired other metals and machine concerns, which comprise the core of Katy Industries, Inc., a congolmerate of more than 43 companies and divisions formed in 1970. He was also chairman emeritus of CRL, Inc., a firm privately held by the Carroll family, which includes American Machine and Science, Inc. and International Metals and Machine, Inc. During his career, Carroll has participated in government trade missions to Ireland, Egypt, India and Portugal, and has served on the boards of the Sonntag Foundation for Cancer Research, the Chicago Boys Club, DePaul University, American Ireland Fund and Catholic Charities. In 1957, Boston College bestowed an honorary doctor of laws degree on Carroll. He was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by DePaul University in 1966.
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About the author
Edward Desmond Miller (June 18, 1931-July 5, 2022)
Eddie Miller was born and raised in Dorchester, MA. Eddie and Wallace Carroll, for whom the Boston College Carroll School of Management is named, were dear friends since the first day they met at BC over 60 years ago. Their close bond has been passed on to the Miller and Carroll families – children, grandchildren and great grandchildren – through the decades. Eddie graduated from English High School in Boston, where he starred in baseball, hockey and football. He came to the Heights in the fall of 1953 as a student on the G.I. Bill, after joining the Marine Corps and serving in the First Marine Division in the Korean War. At BC, Eddie was a stellar baseball player and was widely considered to be an extraordinarily brilliant outfielder. In 1957, as President of his senior class, he participated in the same graduation ceremony at the Boston Garden at which Wallace Carroll received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from his Alma Mater, giving rise to the mutual joke that they were classmates. After starting as Business Manager of Athletics upon graduation, Eddie was quickly promoted to Sports Information Director (SID), and developed formidable relationships with the college's administrators, coaches and athletes, as well with the sports media. Within just a few years, Eddie was considered one of the top SIDs in the country. The football press box at Alumni Stadium is named for Eddie and for his successor and former student assistant, Reid Oslin. Eddie became Director of University Public Relations in 1974. He received his MBA from BC in 1967, writing his thesis on Title IX (the landmark federal civil rights law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex at colleges and universities). In 1990 he earned his doctorate in administration of higher education, writing his dissertation entitled Fulfilling a Mission: Profiles of Outstanding Student Athletes at Boston College on the role a Jesuit education played in the formation of BC's student-athletes across several decades from former Athletic Director, Bill Flynn, to NBA All Star, Michael Adams, to Heisman Trophy winner, Doug Flutie. Eddie's numerous awards and recognitions included being inducted into the Boston College Athletics Hall of Fame and the Park League Hall of Fame, as well as the Sports Information Director Award from the All-American Football Foundation, the Press Box Award from the New England Writers, among many others. Among his many community and civic activities, Eddie was president of the Milton Hospital Board of Directors, the Milton Academy Parents' Association and the NCAA Hall of Fame Committee. He served as both President and Commissioner of the Boston Park League for more than 20 years. Eddie and his wife, Patti, are the parents of nine children, the grandparents of 23 grandchildren, and the great grandparents of 19 great grandchildren, with a total of 25 Boston College degrees (thus far) among the family members.
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