UMO Alumnus Dean Rouse Receives Tillman Business Award

MOUNT OLIVE- Dean Rouse of Pink Hill recently received the Tillman Business Award during the 2019 University of Mount Olive (UMO) Alumni Awards Ceremony.

Rouse, a seventh generation tobacconist, graduated from Mount Olive College with a bachelor of science in political sciences in 1990. Living on the family farm in the Liddell Community of Lenoir County, Rouse is passionate about maintaining and preserving his family farms and heritage.

Throughout his career Rouse has been involved in every aspect of the tobacco industry including farming, warehousing, lobbying, wholesaling, and manufacturing. One of his tobacco companies, M & R Holdings in Pink Hill, manufactures Dean’s Cigars and Farmer’s Gold Pipe Tobacco. His business employs 45 full-time personnel in its 28,000 square-foot facility.

Outside of his business venture, Rouse is actively involved with his alma mater. He has served on the University of Mount Olive Foundation Board since 2016. A member of the University’s Trojan Club, Rouse is actively involved in an annual golf tournament that supports student scholarships

Rouse’s extraordinary service and support to the University of Mount Olive have earned him the distinguished honor of being the 2019 Tillman Business Award recipient.

The University of Mount Olive is a private institution rooted in the liberal arts tradition with defining Christian values. The University, sponsored by the Convention of Original Free Will Baptists, has education service centers in Mount Olive, New Bern, Wilmington, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Research Triangle Park, Washington, Jacksonville, and online. For more information, visit www.umo.edu.