Wayland Henry Cato, Jr.
Born on March 23, 1923, in Ridge Springs, South Carolina, William H. Cato Jr. attended and graduated from the Academy of Richmond County in 1940. His father, a native of Ridge Springs, managed stores in Georgia and South Carolina for United Merchants and Manufacturers. After completing his college degree at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Cato joined the Navy and served from 1944 to 1946. Returning from active duty, Cato joined his father, Wayland Sr., and his younger brother, Edgar Thomas Cato, founding two Cato stores in small towns in South Carolina. The family relocated from Augusta to Charlotte, which became the company headquarters. By the end of the first year, three more stores had been opened and the company would continue to expand from there. In 2019, the company operates over 1300 stores under various names in thirty-one states, and online. He shared the fruits of his success with many institutions and organizations in North and South Carolina.
Cato was a strong believer in education. He said, “In my opinion, the best thing a person can do for himself, is to get a good education.” To help make that possible for many students, Cato made a big commitment to higher education over the years. He endowed a ‘needs-based’ scholarship for each of the North Carolina state-funded colleges. Queens University has the Wayland H. Cato Jr. School of Education. He also endowed a Chair of Leadership at Queens. At University of North Carolina-Charlotte, the Admissions Building bears his name, and he endowed a fellowship for outstanding doctoral students. He served on the UNC Charlotte Foundation Board. Cato was a longtime supporter of Central Piedmont Community College, which named its Northeast Campus the Cato Campus.
Cato’s first wife, Margaret, died in 1963. In 1998, he married South Carolinian Marion Rivers Ravenel. He bought and restored an historic home in Charleston in 1992. His wife and he became very active in Preservation, the Arts, and Education in Charleston. The College of Charleston now has the Marion and Wayland Cato Jr. Center for the Arts. He served on the Spoleto Festival Board. Spoleto became one of the most recognized arts festivals in the south.
Cato received many awards for his work, including an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from UNC-Charlotte. He was inducted into the North Carolina Business Hall of Fame. He received the Order of the Palmetto from the state of South Carolina and the Order of the Longleaf Pine from North Carolina. These are the highest civilian honors given in each state, recognizing Extraordinary Lifetime Achievement.