Newton Thomas, who founded The Newtron Group, a $1 billion Baton Rouge-based industrial construction contractor, died Saturday at the age of 81.
Thomas began his career as a project estimator with Southern Instruments and served a two-year term as president. He left Southern Instruments to start Newtron, a union instrumentation contractor, in 1973.
In 1982, Thomas launched Triad Electric and Controls, a merit shop version of Newtron, as well as The Newtron Group, the parent company of Newtron and Triad. Today, the Newtron Group has about 4,500 employees and is a $1 billion company. The company has offices across Louisiana, Texas, California and Nevada.
The Newtron Group is one of the largest privately owned specialty electrical construction companies in the U.S. and is among the nation’s leading industrial electrical and instrumentation providers. The company was founded on Thomas’ values, which hold that all employees should be treated with respect and dignity.
“He is truly a legend and his legacy will live on in perpetuity,” says Newtron Group President and CEO John Schempf. “He was incredibly humble for how huge he was in other people’s lives. People who work at Newtron who have met him one or two times are forever touched by him. He’s one of a kind. Newton is truly an icon in Baton Rouge and the state of Louisiana.”
Thomas graduated from the LSU Lab School and later LSU with degrees in electrical engineering and business administration. Because he studied electrical engineering, friends nicknamed him “Newtron”—“Tron” for short. At LSU, he joined the cheer squad and was a catcher on the LSU baseball team.
Read the latest Business Report feature on The Newtron Group.
