HOUSTON (ABP) — Philanthropist John Baugh of Houston, a major benefactor of mainstream Baptist causes and institutions, died March 5. He was 91.
Baugh, a member of Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston, was founder of SYSCO Corporation, serving as chairman of the company's board until 1985 and senior chairman through 1997. He also was a director of the Bank of Houston and had ranching, oil and other business interests.
Baugh was a founding trustee of Houston Baptist University, a regent emeritus of Baylor University, and a longtime director of the Baptist Foundation of Texas.
He was instrumental in founding Texas Baptists Committed, and he was the author of The Battle for Baptist Integrity, a book examining what he saw as the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Baugh received the W.R. White Service Award, the Alumnus Honaris Causa, the Herbert H. Reynolds Award and the Founders' Medal, all from Baylor University. A center for entrepreneurship in Baylor's Hankamer School of Business is named in his honor.
He is survived by his wife, Eula Mae, and by their daughter, Babs, of San Antonio.
Additional information will follow as it becomes available.
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