On Thursday, the Dillard College of Business Administration hosted a ceremony to honor one of the ground-breaking businessmen of Wichita Falls – L.O. Nelson III.
Nelson, who served both the Wichita Falls community as a businessman and as a supportive aid, is retiring from his role as a member of the Small Business Development Center.
Nelson has played different roles in the business field.
After graduating college, he went to work for the Department of Biochemistry at Purdue University, where he remained for 16 years before starting his own private computer consulting business.
Though the business was successful, Nelson returned to Wichita Falls due to his father’s failing health, where he continued to run the family business, L.O. Nelson Office Supplies.
Nelson worked at the center for 16 years and acted first as a small business analysis before becoming the assistant director in 1999.
Nelson said he has always been in the business side of things.
From the littlest tasks, such as sweeping to learning what made the business successful, these are the lessons Nelson said he learned as a young man working in his family’s office supply store.
His grandfather, L.O. Nelson I, opened the office supply business in Wichita Falls in 1939, where it remained a trademark in the community until it closed in 1994.
Even after the family business closed, Nelson continued to act as a cornerstone of the Wichita Falls business community by training others and offering advice about how to run a small business.
It was only natural for him to come to the Small Business Development Center to help others.
“L.O. Nelson has contributed greatly to our Small Business Development Center and our local economy,” said Terry Patton, dean of the college of business administration.
Patton said she believes Nelson’s role in the Small Business Development Center has not only made an impact in the center, but also in the lives of many small business owners.
“Personally, I am honored to have had the opportunity to know him,” Patton said.
