University of Arkansas Walton College Announces 2008 Arkansas Business Hall of Fame Inductees

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Arkansas Business Hall of Fame celebrates its 10^th year with the induction of four more distinguished Arkansas business leaders. Since its founding in 1999, 38 individuals have been honored for their accomplishments and lasting impact on the state.

The Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, and the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame Board announced another group of outstanding leaders for the 2008 induction ceremony:

• Lee Bodenhamer, founder, Meridian Management Co., Little Rock, Ark.

• William H. Bowen, retired president, chairman and CEO, First Commercial Bank and First Commercial Corp., Little Rock, Ark.

• The late Harvey C. Couch, founder, Arkansas Power & Light Co. (now Entergy), Little Rock, Ark.

• The late William H. Kennedy Jr., chairman and CEO, National Bank of Commerce, Pine Bluff, Ark.

“The Arkansas economy has been blessed with a tremendous base of business talent,” Walton College Dean Dan L. Worrell said. “We are excited that it is our 10th year to highlight the many outstanding contributions of these business leaders. We believe it is vital to the state and its future business leaders to honor and perpetuate these inductees’ names and accomplishments.”

The Arkansas Business Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held Friday, Feb. 8, 2008, 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 University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.

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 17 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.

A native of El Dorado, Ark., Lee Bodenhamer earned a bachelor of science in business administration and an M.B.A. from the Walton College. After graduating, he was hired as the first full-time employee for the Participating Annuity Life Insurance Company, the country’s first public variable annuity company, launched by Harold Dulan, a Walton College professor of finance. In 1964, he went to Harvard to earn a doctorate. After teaching at Harvard, he returned to Arkansas to establish First Variable Life Insurance Company. In 1977, he founded Meridian Management Co. an investment management firm. He currently heads Centennial Consulting Co. In 1998, Bodenhamer worked with Chancellor John A. White to establish a fellowship program at the University of Arkansas for freshman honors students. Since that time, 73 students have received the nationally competitive and prestigious Bodenhamer Fellowships. Bodenhamer served on the university’s Campaign for the Twenty-First Century Steering Committee.

William Bowen received a law degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law and a master’s in taxation from New York University. He is a graduate of Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University. After a partnership in the law firm of Smith, Williams, Friday and Bowen, the Altheimer native joined Commercial National Bank (now Regions Bank) in 1971 as president. Under his leadership, it became the largest bank in Arkansas. After retiring in 1991, he served as Gov. Bill Clinton’s chief of staff. In 1993, Bowen became president and CEO of Healthsource Arkansas Ventures Inc. He served as dean of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law School. Among his many positions in public service were chairman of the Philander Smith College capital campaign, founding board member of the Arkansas School for Math and Science, and founding chairman of the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority.

Harvey Couch was born in Calhoun, Ark. An entrepreneur, he was known for bringing electricity to Arkansas. In 1900, he formed the North Louisiana Telephone Co., and in 1911 he sold it to Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. In 1913, he created Arkansas Power Company. He bought two failed electric companies in Arkadelphia and Malvern and connected the two cities with a 22-mile line. He continued to buy utilities and connect them. In 1915, his company became Arkansas Light and Power Company, which, by 1920, supplied power to 33 Arkansas communities. In 1926, Arkansas Power & Light was incorporated. During his lifetime, Couch developed Remmel Dam and Carpenter Dam for hydroelectric power from the Ouachita River. He formed Mississippi Power & Light Co. in 1923 as well as Louisiana Power Co. in 1925. In 1926, he joined these companies to form what would become Entergy in 1996. He served as one of seven directors of President Herbert Hoover’s newly created Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1931. Couch died in 1941.

William H. Kennedy, Jr. graduated from Hendrix College and Stonier Graduate School of Banking, Rutgers University. He worked with Arkansas Power & Light as vice president of industrial development in the early 1950s, traveling Arkansas to bring industry to the state. He accepted employment with National Bank of Commerce of Pine Bluff in 1957 and retired as its chairman of the board in 1984. During his tenure there, the bank went from $45 million to more than $200 million in assets. Kennedy was the first Arkansan elected as president of the American Bankers Association where, among many other issues, he fought for deregulation of banking. In 1983, U.S News & World Report named him the third most influential American in the area of finance. He served as president of the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas State Council on Economic Education and the Arkansas Waterways Commission. He was named to  the Arkansas River Hall of Fame. Kennedy was devoted to his hometown and served as chairman of the Pine Bluff Utility Commission, chairman of the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Public Library System and as the first campaign chairman for Jefferson County United Way. He died in 1991. He received a Purple Heart and Silver Star for service in World War II.

Boyer said: “We are very excited about this year’s inductees. They join 38 other Arkansas business leaders in a place of prominence. Each of these distinctive people has made a major contribution to the state of Arkansas and has reached out and touched the nation and the world with their expertise and services.”

Previous inductees in the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame include:

• 1999 - the late William T. Dillard Sr., Dillard's Inc.; the late Charles R. Murphy Jr., Murphy Oil; the late Jackson T. Stephens, Stephens Inc.; the late Sam M. Walton, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

• 2000 - Joe T. Ford, ALLTEL Corp.; the late Harvey Jones, Jones Truck Lines; the late Donald W. Reynolds, Donrey Media (now Stephens Media Group); Don Tyson, Tyson Foods Inc.

• 2001 - the late Col. Thomas H. Barton, Lion Oil Co.; the late William E. Darby, National Old Line Insurance Co.; Johnelle and the late J.B Hunt, J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.; the late John H. Johnson, Johnson Publishing Company Inc.

• 2002 - the late Roland S. Boreham Jr., Baldor Electric Co.; the late Sheridan Garrison, American Freightways Inc. (now FedEx Freight East); Gene George, George's Inc.; Walter V. Smiley, Smiley Investment Co.

• 2003 - Richard E. Bell, Riceland Foods Inc.; David D. Glass, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.; the late Robert D. Nabholz Sr., Nabholz Construction Corporation; the late Louis L. Ramsay Jr., Simmons First National Corporation

• 2004 - the late John A. Cooper Sr., Cooper Communities Inc.; the late Frank Lyon Sr., Frank Lyon Co.; Charles D. Morgan, Acxiom^® Corp.; the late Robert A. Young Jr., Arkansas Best Corp.

• 2005 - the late Dave Grundfest Sr., Sterling Stores Co. Inc.; the late James T. “Red” Hudson, Hudson Foods Inc.; Donald Munro, Munro & Co. Inc.; Edward M. Penick Sr., Worthen Banking Corp.

• 2006 - Frank Hickingbotham, TCBY Enterprises Inc.; the late William F. “Billy” Rector, Rector Phillips Morse Inc. (RPM); Doyle W. Rogers Sr., Metropolitan National Bank; and Forrest L. Wood, Wood Manufacturing Company Inc. (Ranger Boats)

• 2007 - The late Delbert E. Allen Sr., Allen Canning Co.; Thelma Joshua and the late Ernest P. Joshua Sr., J.M. Products Inc.; Albert R. Yarnell, Yarnell Ice Cream Co.; and the late Kenneth Pat Wilson, First Arkansas BancShares, Inc.

Tickets to the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame, a black-tie optional event, are $150 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 117, 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/halloffame/