Tolson to Receive Prestigious Watauga Medal

Norris Tolson, president and CEO of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, will be one of three honored with the prestigious Watauga Medal by North Carolina State University for his distinguished service to the university at the university's Founders' Day Dinner March 9.

Tolson has served the citizens of North Carolina as a business and policy leader for more than four decades. Tolson graduated from NCSU with a bachelor's degree in crop science and agribusiness in 1962. After serving in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps from 1963 to 1965, he joined Dupont, where he held various research, marketing and sales assignments in the company's agricultural products and electronics business for 28 years. He was assigned both domestic and international business responsibilities and lived in Europe for several years before retiring in 1993.

He then served in some of the top policy positions in the state. He was a two-term legislator (1994-1997), Secretary of Commerce (1997-1998), Secretary of Transportation (1998) and Secretary of Revenue (2001-2007).

Tolson, of Pinetops, N.C., serves on the NC State Board of Visitors and the Alumni Association board, as well as the College of Education Foundation. He also is a member of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Alumni Society.

Tolson has been with the Biotechnology Center since 2007.