Encyclopedia · Biography

Thomas A. Roe Jr.

South Carolina businessman and philanthropist; Roe Foundation and State Policy Network founder (1927–2000)

Personal details

Full name: Thomas Anderson Roe Jr.
Born: 1927 (day and month not established), Greenville County, South Carolina
Died: January 9, 2000 (age 72), South Carolina
Parents: Thomas Anderson Roe Sr. and Lelia Cunningham Roe
Education: Furman University, B.A. (1948); honorary LL.D. (1980)
Spouse: Shirley Waddell Roe (married until his death in 2000; she died July 2025)
Children: Elizabeth, Andy, Amy, Phillip and John
Business: Builders Marts of America, chair 1961–1987
Organizations: Roe Foundation; South Carolina Policy Council; founding chair, State Policy Network; Heritage Foundation trustee

Early life, parents, wife and children

Thomas Anderson Roe Jr. was born in Greenville County, South Carolina, in 1927, the son of Thomas Anderson Roe and Lelia Cunningham Roe. The South Carolina Senate's memorial resolution dated January 18, 2000 records his death on January 9, 2000, at age 72. Public sources consulted do not specify an exact birthday and no date is invented. [1]

Roe married Shirley Waddell Roe. The Senate resolution identifies their five children—Elizabeth, Andy, Amy, Phillip and John—and names son-in-law Thomas Willcox, who later appeared in Roe Foundation officer records. Shirley continued the Roe Foundation's work after her husband's death and died in July 2025, according to the South Carolina Policy Council. The personal details above come from a state legislative memorial rather than unattributed web biographies. [1] [5]

Furman, business and local philanthropy

Roe earned a bachelor's degree from Furman University in 1948 and later studied in programs associated with LaSalle Extension University and the Brookings Institution's Advanced Study Program on Urban Policy. Furman granted him an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1980. The South Carolina Senate's adopted resolution describes his transformation of Builders Marts of America from a small building-materials supply company into an international business and identifies him as chairman of its board from 1961 to 1987. [1]

His Greenville philanthropic activities supported Furman University, the Peace Center for the Performing Arts, the Greenville Pediatric Dental Clinic, and later activities financed through the Roe Foundation. The Senate resolution noted his 1960 Sertoma Distinguished Service Award and the South Carolina Order of the Palmetto in 1995. These are identifiable local roles separate from his national political giving. [1] [2]

South Carolina Republican politics and association with Reagan

Roe was active in South Carolina Republican politics from the 1950s, at a time of substantial partisan realignment in the state, and the South Carolina Senate's memorial identifies him as an adviser to Ronald Reagan. A philanthropic retrospective reported that Reagan's early-1980s interest in moving responsibility to the states influenced Roe's focus on state think tanks. These sources support a documented adviser/ideological engagement, not a claim that Roe personally wrote a Reagan executive order or controlled the administration's personnel decisions. [1] [3]

Roe Foundation and charitable grantmaking

Roe and his wife established the Roe Foundation, a Greenville private foundation with federal exemption dating to 1969. The foundation funded education, community and market-oriented policy institutions, including the Heritage Foundation and local public-policy think tanks. Its IRS return series tracks documented grant payments; the activities of the grant recipients should not automatically be attributed to the family as operational commands. [4] [9]

After Roe died, Shirley Waddell Roe continued as chair for many years. The 2025 filing identifies their daughter Amy R. Willcox as chair following Shirley's death. The foundation's later $12.08 million in 2020–2023 grants to State Policy Network is a posthumous organizational financing record, not personal spending by Roe himself during his lifetime. [4] [5]

South Carolina Policy Council, Madison Group and State Policy Network

In 1986, Roe helped found the South Carolina Policy Council, a free-market think tank in his home state, and led early collaboration among similar institutes through the Madison Group. In 1992 he became founding chair of the incorporated State Policy Network, created to build capacity and exchange research among state policy nonprofits. The founding network reportedly consisted of twelve think tanks, a figure that expanded over later decades; Roe's personal role belongs to the organization's founding period ending with his death in 2000. [2] [3]

SPN established an annual Thomas A. Roe Award in 1992 to recognize contributions to state-focused policy advocacy. The award and 2018 Thomas Roe Legacy Society reflect his organizational legacy, but neither is a separate private foundation he personally chaired after 2000. [6] [9]

Heritage Foundation, Roe Institute and national board relationships

Roe was a trustee of the Heritage Foundation, and Heritage's economics program continues to include the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, named in recognition of his involvement and philanthropy. A 2026 Heritage announcement documented the institute's continuing work on housing, economic regulation, financial markets and trade. Having a named institute demonstrates a historical institutional association; it does not mean the Roe Foundation legally owns or supervises Heritage's economic research. [2] [7]

Roe also served with board members of the Free Congress Foundation and other conservative organizations. A 1999 contemporaneous study identified Edwin Feulner and Paul Weyrich among foundation board participants at that time. The source provides a dated account of overlapping organizations, not proof that every associated institute followed a common decision-making command. [8]

Death and historical record

Roe died on January 9, 2000. South Carolina's Senate adopted Resolution S.1038 on January 18 recounting his business work, education, political activities and philanthropy. Later contributions through his family foundation and the policy organizations he helped found are documented separately from his personal acts before 2000. [1]

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References

Sources examined through November 13, 2026. All dates, grant amounts, affiliations and governance terms are tied to attributable records.