Loyola to honor Phyllis Taylor

    Longtime New Orleans champion of education Phyllis M. Taylor, chairwoman and president of the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation, is the recipient of Loyola University New Orleans’ 2013 Integritas Vitae Award, the university’s highest honor.
    Loyola will recognize Taylor at the 1912 Society Dinner Dec. 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the Roosevelt New Orleans. Tickets for the event are available at loyno.edu/1912. Ed Quatrevaux, inspector general of New Orleans, is the featured speaker.
    The Integritas Vitae Award is presented annually to an individual who exemplifies the qualities Loyola seeks to instill in its students, such as high moral character and a commitment to selfless service done without expecting rewards or public recognition. The award also recognizes honesty, integrity, justice and the preservation of human dignity.
    “To live my life with integrity is certainly a goal that I have sought to achieve,” Taylor said. “Any success I have had is because of individuals in my life who have served as models of integrity; my aunt, Winnie Miller, and my husband, Patrick Taylor, to name two.
    “Even more of a guide comes from the precepts of Catholicism that I work to live by. I am doubtful that I deserve this recognition, but accept it as a challenge to live by its charge.”
    Taylor is chairwoman of Endeavor Enterprises LLC, a management company that oversees the various Taylor operations.
    In 1985, she started the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation with her late husband, Patrick F. Taylor, to work toward their vision of providing meaningful educational opportunity to every child. Taylor also continues her late husband’s legacy, TOPS, or the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, seeking to ensure students have the opportunity to receive merit-based, state-paid college tuition. This program now exists in 22 other states. The foundation supports advances in law enforcement, the military, community charitable organizations and humanitarian efforts.
    The Patrick F. Taylor Foundation recently pledged $1.26 million in scholarship support to Loyola for academically talented, first-generation college students who reside in Louisiana and demonstrate financial need. The foundation’s grant provides seven $15,000 scholarships per year over the next 12 years for deserving students.