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