Wallace Edward Carroll was born in 4 Nov 1907 in Taunton, Massachusetts, the sixth child of Patrick Joseph Carroll and his wife Catherine Louise Feeley. His father was a blacksmith, who immigrated from Ireland in 1889, while his mother Catherine had been born in Boston. They had married in Taunton on 27 Nov 1895.
Wallace Carroll worked as a railroad section hand, to help pay his way through Boston College from where he graduated in 1928. He was then a year at Harvard Business School, but left in 1929 during the Great Depression. There are several Taunton City Directories online at Ancestry.com. From 1919-1926, Patrick is called a blacksmith. From 1934-40 Patrick is called an "Auto Spring Maker".
Wallace moved to Chicago in 1936. In the 1940 US Federal Census, he is living at Vernon, Lake County, Illinois aged 32, his wife Lelia is aged 32, and their two children Wallace age 2, and Denis age 1. At that time, he was a branch manager for Precision Instruments.
His company Size Control Co, founded in Chicago to manufacture precision mechanical plug gauges, grew quickly during World War II. He either changed this name, or acquired another company called American Gage. And then in 1948 founded American Gage and Machine Company. After acquiring the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, Wallace Carroll created a holding company called Katy Industries, Inc. in 1967. At that point, the railroad began being called "the Katy".
In 1986, Katy Industries (spelled "Caty" in this article) is mentioned, being headquartered in Elgin, Illinois, as a large user of the Pick operating system, they then having 16 or 17 Microdata Corp and Ultimate computers. (Source) At that time they are called "a $400 million diversified manufacturer and food products concern that installed its first Pick-based computer about 10 years ago."
In 1989, Wallace made a ten-million dollar bequest to his alma mater Boston College. The Jesuit college renamed its school of management after him, the Wallace E Carroll School of Management.
Wallace Carroll died at his home in Lake Forest, Illinois, aged 82 on 29 Sep 1990. His obituary ran in The New York Times 3 Oct 1990, and in the Chicago Tribune on 1 Oct 1990. At the time of his death he was chairman and chief executive of Katy Industries, a Chicago-based conglomerate. He was survived by his wife Lelia, sons Barry Carroll, Wallace Jr and Denis; daughter Lelia Carroll Johnson, and 18 grandchildren. He was buried at St Mary's, Lake Forest, Illinois.
In 1992 through 1994 there was a protracted bidding war for Katy Industries, between the Carroll family, Rosecliff Inc, Steinhardt Enterprises Inc and the Pensler Capital Corporation. At that time the conglomerate was valued at $260 million. The battle was evidently scuttled by the board declaring a large cash dividend to make a takeover attempt less lucrative.
Other sources not linked above: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/katy-industries-inc-history/