FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Recognized for the lasting economic impact their businesses have made on the State of Arkansas, four distinguished Arkansans have been selected for the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame.

The Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas has announced these outstanding business leaders for the 2004 induction ceremony:

• The late John A. Cooper, Sr., founder, president, CEO and chairman of the board, Cooper Communities, Inc., Rogers, Ark.;
• the late Frank Lyon, Sr., chairman of the board, Frank Lyon Company, Little Rock, Ark.;
• Charles D. Morgan, company leader, Acxiom^® Corporation, Little Rock, Ark.; and
• the late Robert A. Young, Jr., founder, Arkansas Best Corporation, Fort Smith, Ark.

Walton College Dean Doyle Z. Williams said, "This year’s inductees built businesses that have made - and are continuing to make - a significant impact on the economy of Arkansas. We founded the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame in 1999 to showcase the Arkansas economy and to highlight the important and lasting contributions of its talented business leaders. We feel it is important to the state’s future business leaders to honor and perpetuate these inductees’ names and accomplishments."

The sixth annual Arkansas Business Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held on Friday, February 13, 2004, at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. The Arkansas Business Hall of Fame is permanently housed in the atrium of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development at the Walton College on the Fayetteville campus.

The selection process was chaired by Walton College alumnus and Arkansas native Tommy Boyer, chief executive officer of Micro Images, Amarillo, Texas. A nominating committee of 20 business leaders encouraged people throughout the state and beyond to make nominations, and then a selection committee of 12 business and community leaders reviewed the nominations and chose the inductees. Criteria for selection included: the significance of the impact made as a business leader, the concern demonstrated for improving the community, and the display of ethics in all business dealings. In addition, the inductee must be over the age of 60.

Boyer said, "We are very excited about this year’s inductees. They join 21 other Arkansas business leaders in a place of prominence. Each of these distinctive people has made a major contribution to the state of Arkansas in terms of employment and revenues and has reached out and touched the nation and the world with their expertise and services."

Cooper’s concept of a master-planned retirement community has become the blueprint for similar developments across the country. He was one of the first to identify a new market segment among the post-World War II generation who had the health, life expectancy and finances to exit the workforce and retire. In 1954, he formed the John A. Cooper Company, later reorganized as Cooper Communities, Inc., in 1971. His company will celebrate its 50^th anniversary next year. Cooper’s three massive, master-planned communities in Arkansas — Hot Springs Village, Cherokee Village, and Bella Vista Village — established the state as a retirement destination and created a significant number of jobs in some of the state’s most economically depressed areas. Today, more than 20,000 families live in Cooper master-planned communities and resorts in Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, South Carolina and West Virginia. A native of Earle, Ark., he is a graduate of the Cumberland School of Law at Stamford University, Birmingham, Ala. Cooper died in 1998 at the age of 92.

Lyon founded the Frank Lyon Company in 1942 and held the position of chairman of the board until 1998 when he died at the age of 88. At the heart of his multimillion-dollar holding company was the Frank Lyon Distributing Company, which represented RCA, Whirlpool, Bryant and Jenn-Air. At one time, Lyon also owned the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Arkansas; Twin City Bank (now U.S. Bancorp); and the 13,000-acre Wingmead Farms, Inc., in Prairie County. In the late 1980s, his financial empire was worth almost a half-billion dollars. Lyon was a civic leader and steadfast supporter of the Presbyterian Church. Arkansas College in Batesville changed its name in 1994 in honor of Lyon who served on its board from 1946 to 1989 and as chairman from 1976 to 1987. In addition to the more than a million dollars he gave to the college, he contributed his time and advice. Lyon also invested in downtown Little Rock commercial buildings such as the Worthen Bank and First Federal Savings and Loan buildings.

Under Morgan’s more than 30 years of leadership, Acxiom has expanded from a small data processing company (originally called Demographics, based in Conway) into a $1 billion, global corporation that provides customer and information management solutions for many of the largest, most respected companies in the world. By instilling a unique and exciting business culture and a vision of success, Morgan has seen Acxiom named five times to Fortune magazine’s list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For in America," the only Arkansas-based company with such a distinction. Acxiom continues to provide the kind of high-tech jobs that inspire the best and brightest technical talent in Arkansas - and from elsewhere - to continue their careers in the state. A native of Fort Smith, Ark., Morgan holds a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Arkansas and has served as chairman of the Direct Marketing Association and on the board of trustees of Hendrix College.

After forming a law partnership in 1933, Young began operation of the Chaffee Transit Company in 1940, busing military men between downtown Fort Smith and nearby Fort Chaffee. Through a number of profitable acquisitions, Young formed Arkansas Best Corporation in 1966, a multi-million dollar holding company, which today includes three primary subsidiaries: ABF Freight System Inc.^® (ABF); Clipper; and FleetNet America, LLC. For the year 2002, the company’s revenues exceeded $1.4 billion. Its ABF subsidiary is one of North America’s largest and most experienced motor carriers, with direct service to clients in all 50 states, nine Canadian provinces, Puerto Rico and Mexico. In addition, ABF offers service to 250 ports in more than 130 countries worldwide. Young is a 1933 graduate of the University of Arkansas School of Law and received a UA honorary degree in 1972. With a strong commitment to the U of A, he served on the UA Board of Trustees for ten years and as a founding member of the UA Development Council. In 1970, he established the Robert and Vivian Young Distinguished Chair in Business Administration within the Walton College. Young died in 1973 at the age of 65.

Previous inductees in the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame include: the late William T. Dillard, Sr., Dillard's, Inc.; the late Charles R. Murphy, Jr., Murphy Oil; Jackson T. Stephens, Stephens Inc.; the late Sam M. Walton, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.; Joe T. Ford, ALLTEL Corporation; the late Harvey Jones, Jones Truck Lines; the late Donald W. Reynolds, Donrey Media (now Stephens Media Group); Don Tyson, Tyson Foods, Inc.; the late Col. Thomas H. Barton, Lion Oil Company; the late William E. Darby, National Old Line Insurance Company;

J. B. and Johnelle Hunt, J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.; John H. Johnson, Johnson Publishing Company Inc.; Roland S. Boreham, Jr., Baldor Electric Company; F. Sheridan Garrison, American Freightways, Inc. (now FedEx Freight East); Gene George, George's, Inc.; Walter V. Smiley, Smiley Investment Company; Richard E. Bell, Riceland Foods, Inc.; David D. Glass, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.; the late Robert D. Nabholz, Sr., Nabholz Construction Corporation; and Louis L. Ramsay, Jr., Simmons First National Corporation.

Tickets to the black-tie event on Friday, February 13, 2004, are $125 per person. For more information about tickets and event sponsorships, please contact the Office of External Relations at the Sam M. Walton College of Business, Business Building 343, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701-1201, (479) 575-6146, by e-mail at abhf@walton.uark.edu, or on the web at http://waltoncollege.uark.edu/externalrelations/halloffame.asp