Clemson Trustee Louis B. Lynn honored as ICON by Columbia Business Report

Clemson University Trustee Louis B. Lynn was honored as one of the inaugural ICONS by the Columbia Regional Business Report.

Lynn, a native of Darlington, was named one of the ICONS, “the community pillars who have established standards of business and civic excellence.” The honorees were nominated by Business Report readers and selected by a panel of judges.

Lynn is chairman of ENVIRO AgScience, a company he founded in 1985 as a commercial lawn care company. ENVIRO since has grown into a full-service construction management, landscape and design services company with offices in Columbia and Atlanta. Some of the company’s high-visibility projects include the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, Columbia’s Main Street Streetscape and Colonial Life Arena.

A graduate of Clemson University with a Bachelor of Science with honors in 1970 and Master of Science in 1972, Lynn received a Ph.D. in horticulture from the University of Maryland in 1975.

Lynn has been a Clemson trustee since 1988 and served on the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education from 2006 to 2009 and again from 2015 to 2018.

He is a member of the National Urban League board of directors and is on the board of directors of BB&T bank. Previously, he served on the executive committee of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, the board of the American Horticultural Society in Washington, D.C., the board of the National Association of Minority Contractors in Washington, D.C., and was president of the South Carolina Chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors.

Last August, Gov. Henry McMaster awarded Lynn the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest honor. In 2012, Lynn was recognized by the US Department of Commerce as the National Small Businessman of the Year.

He is former vice president of the Clemson University Black Alumni Council and is a charter member of the Clemson University President’s Club, a group of annual donors to Clemson.

“Serving on the Clemson board of trustees has been the most gratifying part of my career,” Lynn said in accepting the honor. “The Clemson board allowed me to help advance agriculture and agribusiness as well as take leadership in diversity initiatives.”