SLS 18RS-15 ORIGINAL
2018 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 6
BY SENATOR ALLAIN
CONDOLENCES. Expresses condolences upon the death of William "Billy" Patout III.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To express the sincere condolences of the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana upon the
3 death of William "Billy" Schwing Patout III, a Louisiana native, lifelong participant
4 in the sugar cane industry in Louisiana, an industry that is especially vital to the
5 economy and culture of South Louisiana, and an internationally recognized sugar
6 industry leader and innovator.
7 WHEREAS, Billy Patout was born in New Iberia, Louisiana, the eldest of the
8 children of William Schwing Patout Jr. and Hester Catherine Bernadas Patout; and
9 WHEREAS, Mr. Patout was raised on a sugar plantation outside New Iberia in the
10 town of Patoutville, Louisiana, which fueled his interest in and passion for the sugar cane
11 industry; and
12 WHEREAS, after high school, Billy Patout left Louisiana to serve in the United
13 States Navy from 1951 to 1955, he was on active duty during the Korean War and he
14 continued his service in the Navy Reserve; and
15 WHEREAS, after attendance at Louisiana State University where he studied
16 agricultural engineering, Mr. Patout returned to the Enterprise sugar factory, which had
17 sustained a devastating fire in March, 1959, and the necessity of rebuilding before the
18 upcoming harvest season left little time for delay; and
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1 WHEREAS, after rising to the position of assistant engineer at the Enterprise factory,
2 Billy Patout decided to leave the family business to move to Hawaii to be a sugar engineer
3 for Brewer and Company in Honolulu, Hawaii; and
4 WHEREAS, Mr. Patout worked for Brewer and Company in both Honolulu and
5 Kauai, Hawaii from 1959 until 1961 when he chose to return to Louisiana and worked as an
6 associate at Vought Consulting Engineers in Pancourtville, Louisiana; and
7 WHEREAS, from 1963 until his retirement in 2001, Billy Patout worked for M. A.
8 Patout and Son, Ltd. in various capacities, interspersed with two periods of time when he
9 worked as chief engineer at Grove Farm in Kauai, and as assistant manager of Haitian
10 American Sugar in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; and
11 WHEREAS, Billy Patout returned to Louisiana in 1970 and served M. A. Patout and
12 Son, Ltd. for the next thirty-one years, serving as assistant general manager, general
13 manager, and, eventually, as president and chief executive officer and general manager,
14 leading the company to unparalleled growth, becoming the largest Louisiana land holding
15 company in the sugar cane production industry and a major raw sugar producer in the United
16 States; and
17 WHEREAS, in the process of growing his family-owned company, at one point, Mr.
18 Patout installed the only cane diffuser in North America to assist in the process of the state's
19 largest daily refining capacity at Enterprise factory, which could process in excess of twenty
20 four thousand tons of sugar cane in a twenty-four-hour period; and
21 WHEREAS, beyond the operations of Patout's sugar production, Mr. Patout was
22 active in industry groups interested in promoting cane sugar in the United States, including
23 serving as president of the American Sugar Cane League from 1974 to 1999; president of
24 Western Sugar Producers, an organization of Bayou Teche sugar factories; director and
25 executive committee member of the Sugar Processing Research Institute, working to support
26 international sugar production and refining industries and their suppliers in cooperation with
27 the United States Department of Agriculture, elected president in 1998 and serving within
28 the organization generally from 1990-2001; director of Agro-Flex, a nonprofit organization
29 chartered to increase and bring new agricultural activities to Louisiana; president of the
30 Kauai Sugar Producers, an organization of sugar factories in Kauai; and member in good
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1 standing of the Joint Agricultural Consultative Committee of the United States and Belize;
2 and
3 WHEREAS, throughout his activities beyond the family business to maintain and
4 expand the sugar production industry, Billy Patout had considerable influence and was
5 honored in 1998 by the Sugar Processing Research Institute with the annual Industrial and
6 Technology Award, the President's Award from the American Sugar Cane League in 2000,
7 and was named 2007 Sugar Man of the Year resulting in his being awarded the Dyer
8 Memorial Award at a ceremony in New York City; and
9 WHEREAS, Mr. Patout donated a personal archival collection of materials on sugar
10 cane, including production, industry, history and chemistry, including hundreds of books,
11 photographs, periodicals, pamphlets and research papers and the archive is housed in the
12 family mill at M.A. Patout and Son and is available for use by students and scholars; and
13 WHEREAS, Susan Crawford Patout survived her husband of forty-six years and the
14 couple had three sons and four daughters and, at the time of his death, they were the proud
15 grandparents of seventeen young people and great-grandparents to three youngsters; and
16 WHEREAS, with considerable experience outside the continental United States, Mr.
17 Patout brought a unique experience and outlook to the role of leadership at M. A. Patout and
18 Son, sugar producers and refiners, sharing his expertise in the sugar industry with his family
19 company and the sugar cane industry nationally and internationally.
20 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
21 does hereby express sincere condolences upon the death of William "Billy" Schwing
22 Patout III, a Louisiana native, lifelong participant in the sugar cane industry in Louisiana,
23 an industry that is especially vital to the economy and culture of South Louisiana, and an
24 internationally recognized sugar industry leader and innovator.
25 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to his
26 widow, Susan Crawford Patout.
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The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Mary Dozier O'Brien.
DIGEST
SR 6 Original 2018 Regular Session Allain
Expresses condolences upon the death of William "Billy" Schwing Patout III, a Louisiana
native and a producer and innovator in the sugar cane industry in Louisiana and around the
world.
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