Tourville, Cox posthumously named 2021 Citizens of Year

The lives of Zeus Industrial Products Inc. founder Frank Tourville Sr. and Cox Industries founder William “Bill” Burkett Cox Sr. were the epitome of the Kiwanis Club of Orangeburg’s focus on service and betterment of community.

For 2021, the men are being named this week posthumously as Kiwanis Club of Orangeburg Citizens of the Year for their “many endeavors to make Orangeburg a better place in which to live.”

“Their spirit of community endearment has benefited many countless citizens of the Orangeburg area over the years,” said Dr. Gene Atkinson, chair of the selection committee and Kiwanis immediate past president.

“Our family is humbled and honored by this posthumous recognition of Mr. Frank Tourville Sr. as this year’s Citizen of the Year by the Orangeburg Kiwanis Club,” the Tourville family said in its official statement. “We wish he were here today to accept it.”

“He invested his heart and soul in this city from the day he moved here to the very end,” the family continued. “He loved the people of Orangeburg and would do anything for them. We’re grateful to the Kiwanis Club … for bestowing this honor; it would have meant a great deal to him.”

“Naturally, our entire family exudes pride in our patriarch and North star,” Cox Sr.’s grandson Mikee Johnson said. “We continue many of his legacies.”

“Recently, our new brick company, US Brick, started a scholarship fund for students to honor granddad,” Johnson said. “The newest addition to our family is our grandson, William Lake Johnson, named after our grandfather. We sincerely appreciate the Kiwanas Club for recognizing our hero. We miss him every day!”

The Kiwanis Club typically recognizes the Person of the Year during an in-person event.

Due to the new omicron variant of the coronavirus, an in-person presentation event will be scheduled for when and if the COVID situation improves.

Tourville and Cox are the 68th and 69th recipients of the award.

Last year, was the first year in the long history of the award where there were no honorees due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The men are only the second and third to be recognized posthumously. J.E. “Dick” Horne was recognized posthumously in 1971.

It was also the first time two individuals have been named for the award in a single year and only the second time more than one individual has been recognized in a single year.

In 1991, Desert Storm War veterans were recognized.

Tourville Sr.

Tourville Sr., who died in March 2021 at the age of 87,  became a well-known visionary in the polymer extrusion industry.

His company, Zeus, had humble beginnings and became one of the first businesses to provide polymer solutions for minimally invasive catheterization procedures. Zeus’ products are used in the medical, aerospace, automotive and energy sectors.

Today, the company employs over 1,800 people worldwide with manufacturing and sales facilities in Aiken, Columbia, Gaston and Orangeburg; Branchburg, New Jersey; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Guangzhou, China; and Letterkenny, Ireland.

The company employs more than 500 people in Orangeburg.

Tourville was born Sept. 1, 1933, and grew up on a Vermont dairy farm.

In his late teens, he joined the military as a combat engineer and paratrooper, serving time in Germany during the Korean War. To earn extra money, he would spit-shine boots for his fellow soldiers for 50 cents a pair.

After serving in the Korean War, Tourville took his first civilian job in 1956 with American Supertemp Wire Co. in Vermont. He worked as an extruder operator and later a company manager.

In 1962, he moved to Massachusetts and revamped and managed Boston Insulated Wire Co. In 1964, he served as the foreman for Trimflex, a larger operation producing insulated wire and tubing.

But Tourville was determined to start his own business in the plastics industry. He founded Zeus Industrial Products in 1966 in New Jersey.

Tourville bought his first extruder from Times Wire & Cable, rented an old warehouse facility in Raritan, New Jersey, and hired his first employee. Together, people and machines formed the foundation of what would become a thriving business. Tourville worked 17-hour days to get the company up and running.

By 1976, Zeus employed over 30 people and purchased the Raritan, N.J., plant.

Tourville brought his company to Orangeburg in 1981 as it became clear that it would outgrow its facility in New Jersey.

Building specs were sent to a number of Sunbelt states and South Carolina was quick to respond.

The company moved into the former Enterprise Cotton Mills on Magnolia Street.

The company has continued to grow over the years.

The most recent company expansion came three years ago when Zeus announced a $75 million project and 350 new jobs in Calhoun County.

That expansion also included the purchase of an existing 80,000-square-foot warehouse in St. Matthews.

Since it arrived in Orangeburg, Zeus has continued to grow its business, obtaining a certification in the aerospace sector as well as expanding its polymathic analytical labs.

Today, the company employs about 1,200 in South Carolina alone.

Beyond Zeus, Tourville was involved in a number of business ventures.

In 1992, the family opened Tourville Lodge at Buck Ridge Plantation for community use.

The lodge has its own Buck Ridge Plantation Catering group that frequently hosts weddings, business gatherings and fundraising events. The food display at events is often elaborate, consisting of fine foods and wines.

In 2009, Tourville embarked on another venture when he saved the Orangeburg Country Club from closure.

Tourville formed Pin High Visions LLC and took over $1.2 million in country club debt and single-handedly rescued it from insolvency.

Tourville’s efforts earned him The Times and Democrat Person of the Year award for 2009.

Tourville made countless professional and civic contributions during his lifetime, including to many charities, community initiatives, churches, colleges and universities.

For years, Tourville gave to the RMC Foundation, which helped the hospital build the H. Filmore Mabry Center for Cancer Care and the Dialysis Access Institute at the Regional Medical Center.

Tourville also gave significantly to Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College, Claflin University and South Carolina State University.

The Student Life and Community Center learning lab at OCtech is named after Tourville.

Tourville Sr. himself received over 16 industry and civic awards, including the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor.

He also received DuPont’s prestigious M.I. “Whitey” Bro Lifetime Achievement Award in Fluoropolymers for his contribution as a foundational pioneer in the fluoropolymer tubing market. He was one of two people ever to receive the award.

Tourville was in the inaugural class of the Orangeburg County Business Hall of Fame in 2015.

He received a number of other awards:

1991: A key to the City of Orangeburg

1993: Orangeburg Chamber of Commerce Spirit Award

2002: Orangeburg City Council Edisto Award

2006: Orangeburg Touchdown Club Community Service Award; the South Carolina Ambassador of Economic Development for Orangeburg County; South Carolina State University: Thomas E. Miller Society inductee; the Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College: Friends of Colleges Award; and the South Carolina Rural Entrepreneur of the Year.

Cox died Feb. 11, 2021, at the age of 95.

He was born Nov. 20, 1925, in Wando and graduated from Berkeley High School in Moncks Corner.

He served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946, after which he attended The Citadel. His first job out of college was working for the S.C. Department of Transportation’s engineering department.

He moved to Columbia in 1950, where he helped to start a wood-preservation business, New Adventure.

In 1952, Cox helped to modify the Columbia plant, and business was going so well another plant was opened in Orangeburg.

The company’s first contract was with Koppers Co. on Nov. 26, 1954.

At the time, finding work was difficult but Cox was able to survive by landing government contracts that provided housing for military families in the Columbia area and shipping railroad ties to California.

Of note, the company also furnished wood for decking and a roof for a blimp hangar.

The company grew from five employees and a total weekly payroll of $300 to 14 manufacturing facilities and five distribution yards employing some 400 individuals in 10 states.

Cox retired as chief executive officer in 1998, with his son Bill Cox Jr. taking over the role as CEO and president at the Cannon Bridge Road company.

Seven years ago, Cox Sr. was inducted into the South Carolina Housing Hall of Fame. Upon receiving the recognition, he gave credit for the company’s success to employees, customers and friends.

Cox also received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Pile Drivers Association.

In 2015, he was inducted into the Orangeburg County Business Hall of Fame.

He was T&D Person of the Year in 2015.

Cox Industries also made community involvement a priority during his time.

Central Carolina Community Foundation and Columbia Metropolitan Magazine recognized Cox in 2016, naming it the small business winner of the Best of Philanthropy Award.

For the past decade, Cox Industries has raised or donated more than $450,000 toward the work of Edisto Habitat for Humanity in Orangeburg and the construction of several homes.

Cox also donated about $10,000 to the One SC Flood Relief Fund, a fundraising effort that helped South Carolinians who were recovering from a disaster, such as Hurricane Matthew and the 2015 flood.

Cox donated more than $726,000 in cash and materials in 2015 alone to local communities, youth organizations, schools, community projects, national charities and state colleges and universities.

The company also provided scholarships to children of Cox Industries employees.

Cox was recognized as a 2015 Pacesetter for the United Way Campaigns, a select group of companies and organizations that choose to complete United Way campaigns before the campaign’s official launch.

In 2016, Cox was named the Business Leader of the Year by the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, and that same year, he was named the Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce Small Business Person of the Year.

His last career may have included his most joy.

Cox supported the First Baptist Church Soup Kitchen ministry. Until the end of his life, he was still making pecan tarts and browsing the sale papers for the best price for a delicious meal.

Kiwanis Citizen of the Year

The Kiwanis Club presents the award each year to a person who has contributed to the well-being of the community over several years. Local civic clubs nominate an individual they feel has contributed to the community.

The Kiwanis Club of Orangeburg has sponsored the Citizen of the Year award for Orangeburg since 1953.

Dr. Carl Caughman was the first to receive the award in 1953.

Recent honorees have included Ken Stovall, Karen Tourville, Jeanna Reynolds, Michael Salley, Bob Beckett and Paul Miller.