SLS 15RS-1002 ORIGINAL
2015 Regular Session
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 106
BY SENATOR WALSWORTH
COMMENDATIONS. Commends CenturyLink, Inc. and its employees for 85 years of
service to the citizens of Louisiana and customers across our nation and for following an
exemplary corporate philosophy.
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2 To commend CenturyLink, Inc. and its employees for eighty-five years of service to the
3 citizens of Louisiana and customers across our nation and for following an
4 exemplary corporate philosophy.
5 WHEREAS, in 1930, William Clarke and Marie Williams purchased the Oak Ridge
6 Telephone Company with its seventy-five subscribers in rural Morehouse Parish for five
7 hundred dollars from F. E. Hogan Sr.; and
8 WHEREAS, the switchboard was located in the Williams' front parlor so the family
9 could man the switchboard twenty-four hours a day, with the only exception being on
10 Sundays between the hours of ten o'clock in the morning and three o'clock in the afternoon
11 when the office was closed for church and dinner; and
12 WHEREAS, the Williams' instilled in their son, Clarke McRae Williams, a tireless
13 work ethic and Christian values as demonstrated by him delivering telephone bills by hand
14 at the age of eight years old and the switchboard being closed on Sundays; and
15 WHEREAS, upon his return from World War II in 1946, where he served as a flight
16 engineer in the United States Air Force, Clarke McRae Williams married Mary Kathryn Lee
17 and his parents gave the newlyweds the company as a wedding gift; and
18 WHEREAS, from 1946 until the 1970's, Oak Ridge Telephone Company
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1 transformed into Central Telephone and Electronics serving three states and ten thousand
2 access lines, then renamed Century Telephone Enterprises, Inc. in 1971, and on October 24,
3 1973, shares of Century Telephone Enterprises, Inc. (Century) common stock traded on the
4 New York Stock Exchange for the first time under the symbol CTL; and
5 WHEREAS, in the 1980s, Century obtained the Federal Communications
6 Commission's approval to operate cellular mobile telephone systems in three areas in
7 Michigan; and
8 WHEREAS, in the 1990s, Century demonstrated enormous growth with the
9 following acquisitions and milestones: acquired Central Telephone Company of Ohio which
10 served more than 65,000 access lines and this acquisition increased Century's access line by
11 a total of twenty percent; surpassed the half million-customer mark in its local exchange
12 operations and the one hundred thousand-customer mark in its long distance operations; its
13 largest acquisition at that time with the purchase of Pacific Telecom, Inc. gaining about
14 660,000 telephone access lines in twelve states and doubling its size; acquired Century
15 Protection Systems, providing full-service security systems to residential, commercial and
16 industrial customers in northeastern Louisiana; added about 89,000 access lines with the
17 purchase of Ameritech's telephone and directory publishing operations in nineteen exchanges
18 in twenty-one northern and central Wisconsin communities; admitted to the Standard &
19 Poor's (S&P) 500 Index; and in 1999, changed its company's name to CenturyTel, Inc.; and
20 WHEREAS, in the 2000's, CenturyTel became the second largest provider in
21 Wisconsin with the purchase of approximately 133,000 additional lines in seventy-seven
22 exchanges; successfully defeated a hostile take-over attempt by Alltell, Inc.; expanded
23 operations to twenty-two states with the acquisition of approximately 300,000 Verizon
24 access lines in Alabama and approximately 354,000 Verizon lines in Missouri, bringing the
25 total access lines served nationwide to nearly 2.5 million; ranked by Business Week as
26 sixteenth among the top one hundred information technology companies and ahead of all
27 other U.S.-based telecommunication companies; completed its acquisition of fiber networks
28 in sixteen markets that added key markets to its footprint across Alabama, Indiana, Kansas,
29 Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin;
30 expanded operations in Alabama and Illinois and into Georgia and North Carolina with the
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SLS 15RS-1002 ORIGINAL
1 acquisition of approximately 165,000 access lines and a 2,400-mile-long fiber network;
2 acquired Embarq Corporation; began operating under the name CenturyLink; and with the
3 Embarq acquisition, CenturyLink was positioned as the largest independent
4 telecommunications provider and the fourth largest telecommunications provider, based on
5 access lines, in the United States; and
6 WHEREAS, in 2002, the founder and chairman of the board, Clarke M. Williams,
7 died following a lengthy illness and Glen F. Post III was elected as the new chairman of the
8 board; and
9 WHEREAS, in 2011, CenturyLink acquired Qwest Communications and Savvis,
10 Inc., and with these two acquisitions became a national, industry-leading communications
11 company providing broadband, voice, and wireless services to consumers and businesses
12 across the country; advanced entertainment services under the CenturyLink Prism TV and
13 DIRECTV brands; and data, voice, and managed services to businesses, government and
14 wholesale customers in local, national, and select international markets through its high-
15 quality advanced fiber optic network and multiple data centers; and with the acquisition of
16 Qwest, CenturyLink became the third largest telecommunications provider, based on access
17 lines, in the United States; and
18 WHEREAS, between 2013 and 2015, CenturyLink has acquired AppFog, Inc. and
19 Tier 3, Inc. and Orchestrate to enhance its cloud services; DataGardens to strengthen its
20 disaster recovery options; and with the acquisition of Cognilytics, CenturyLink has been
21 transformed into an integrated provider of advanced IP-enabled network, cloud, hosting, and
22 IT services; and
23 WHEREAS, throughout the growth and expansion of CenturyLink, the company was
24 guided by the principles of its founder, Clarke M. Williams, that you should "Do unto others
25 as you would have them do unto you"; and
26 WHEREAS, its current president and chief executive officer Glen F. Post III says
27 that "Mr. Williams' life still teaches me two things: Be kind and true in all dealings, and
28 anyone can learn to succeed." and Mr. Williams was often described as the opposite of a
29 cutthroat negotiator, and would only make acquisitions by insisting to sellers, "If this deal
30 isn't good for you, I don't want to do it."; and
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SLS 15RS-1002 ORIGINAL
1 WHEREAS, Mr. Williams' business principles are continued in CenturyLink's
2 "Unifying Principles" of fairness, honesty and integrity, commitment to excellence, positive
3 attitude, respect, faith and perseverance that are the foundation for how its employees
4 interact with its customers and other employees; and
5 WHEREAS, CenturyLink, Inc. deserves to be recognized for its corporate philosophy
6 and dedication to the communities and countries where it does business.
7 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
8 commend CenturyLink, Inc. and its employees for eighty-five years of service to the citizens
9 of Louisiana and customers across our nation and for following an exemplary corporate
10 philosophy.
11 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
12 Glen F. Post III, Chief Executive Officer and President of CenturyLink, Inc. and to the
13 family of Clarke McRae Williams.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by J. W. Wiley.
DIGEST
SCR 106 Original 2015 Regular Session Walsworth
Commends CenturyLink, Inc. and its employees for eighty-five years of service to the
citizens of Louisiana and customers across our nation and for following an exemplary
corporate philosophy.
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