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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville will present an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters to Larry Heitz at the fall 2020 commencement exercises in December. Heitz will be acknowledged during the spring 2020 virtual commencement on Saturday, May 9.

Heitz is SIUE’s first student to graduate with a master’s in business administration from the School of Business. He has served as an executive in residence at SIUE for more than 10 years and is currently serving on the SIUE Foundation Campaign Planning Committee. He annually visits with faculty, mentors students and serves as a guest lecturer. He established an annual MBA scholarship in 2010 and endowed the Heitz Faculty Research Award in 2017. He also was a financial contributor to the Cougar Business Resource Center, which opened in 2012. He was inducted into the SIUE Alumni Association Hall of Fame in 2011.

“While we are disappointed that Larry will not be honored in person this May, we are pleased that he will be back on campus in December to celebrate this achievement,” said School of Business Dean Tim Schoenecker, PhD. “Larry has been a dedicated alumnus, traveling to campus from his home in Arizona annually to meet with current students and provide guest lectures in various classes. Furthermore, he has endowed an annual award to honor excellence in faculty scholarship. Larry represents the epitome of an engaged alumnus.”

Heitz has held influential positions throughout his career, including engineer at Owens Illinois and program manager with Emerson Electric Aerospace. Starting as a product manager in 1970 at Tubular Steel, Inc., he rose through the ranks during his 18-year tenure to become president and chief executive officer. 

In 1988, Heitz began a mergers and acquisitions business, Triac Partners and later Riverside Partners. He acquired more than 10 businesses in the medical and high-tech manufacturing areas, and started companies in five different countries to expand existing companies. He also introduced Eagle Investments in 2002.

Heitz has served on the boards of a number of companies and not-for-profit organizations, such as York Industries, Research Biochemicals, EntraCare Medical Devices, Life 365 Medical software, Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development and others.  

Heitz’s humanitarian and community service efforts are numerous. He has worked with homeless youth in St. Louis and Arizona to create scholarships and housing opportunities, as well as directing programs designed to help clients find housing, earn an education and gain employment.

Organizations such as Golf Fore Africa, which focuses on bringing clean drinking water to rural Africa, have benefitted from Heitz’s consulting. He was able to help the organization quadruple its fundraising efforts.

Heitz established The Lawrence Institute in 2016. The organization’s mission is to help individuals permanently improve their lives. The Institute works primarily with not-for-profit organizations to provide programs offering life skills education, healthcare, and job skill development leading to sustainable long-term, measurable improvement in people’s lives. The Institute typically focuses on building a leadership team, developing effective strategic plans and creating systems that focus on growth and sustainable results.

Heitz and his wife, Sharon, have provided resources and developed programs for children and adolescents living with AIDS, who are being cared for at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. The program helps patients learn how to socialize/normalize living with AIDS in today’s society providing a dedicated psychologist and therapist for the patients and their families.

Heitz earned a bachelor’s in industrial management, mechanical engineering in 1966 from Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management before achieving his MBA at SIUE in 1969.

Photo: Larry Heitz, recipient of SIUE Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.