O. Wayne Rollins*
Class of 1986
- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rollins, Inc.
- Rollins Communications, Inc.
You buy success with effort-the same way you buy groceries with money.
Wayne Rollins was born in 1912 on a farm in Ringgold, Georgia. His father was a farmer, and his mother was a schoolteacher. During the Great Depression, he worked 72 hours a week in a cotton mill.
In 1948, Rollins formed a partnership with his younger brother, John, to buy a radio station in Radford, Virginia. Their business grew into Rollins Broadcasting, which became one of the first to create programming for specific markets. The company grew to include 10 radio and 4 television stations. Rollins took the company public in 1961.
In 1964, Rollins purchased Orkin Exterminating Company, which was worth nearly seven times Rollins Broadcasting's revenues. The transaction was the first recorded leveraged buyout in U.S. history. The Rollins company continued to grow and diversify until 1984 when it became two new NYSE companies: Rollins Communications and RPC Energy Services, Inc.
Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta is named after O. Wayne Rollins.