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Arkansas Business Hall of Fame to induct four in 2008 class Friday, Feb 8, 2008 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The Arkansas Business Hall of Fame will induct four into its 2008 class this evening during a dinner and ceremony at the Statehouse Convention Center. This is the hall of fame's 10th installment of inductees, who are chosen by the University of Arkansas' Sam M. Walton College of Business. "I feel very inadequate, but it couldn't be a nicer honor for someone at sort of the end of their business career," said "quasi-retired" Lee Bodenhamer, founder of Little Rock investment firm Meridian Management Co., who has been doing business for about 50 years. Past inductees in the elite group of 38 include Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton, Joe T. Ford of Alltel Corp. and Charles R. Murphy Jr. of Murphy Oil. Bodenhamer, an El Dorado native, earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from Walton College before becoming the first full-time employee for the Participating Annuity Life Insurance Co., the country's first public variable annuity company, launched by Walton College finance professor Harold Dulan. In 1964, Bodenhamer obtained his doctorate, and later taught, at Harvard University before returning to Arkansas to establish First Variable Life Insurance Company. He founded Meridian in 1977 and currently heads Centennial Consulting Co. Bodenhamer helped establish a fellowship program at the University of Arkansas for freshman honors students in 1998. Since then, 73 students have received Bodenhamer Fellowships. Alongside Bodenhamer, William H. Bowen, the retired CEO of First Commercial Corp. in Little Rock, will accept his invitation into the hall of fame tonight. Bowen received a law degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law, a master's in taxation from New York University and graduated from Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University. "I am excited," Bowen said, advising that it took preparation to accomplish all of his pursuits. "And in your pursuits, you've got to be sure that you're fair," Bowen said. "You've got to communicate the importance of fairness to associates and employees and work in the community for its improvement because you're a part of it." After partnering in a law firm, the Altheimer native joined Commercial National Bank, now Regions Bank, in 1971 as president, growing the bank into Arkansas' largest. Twenty years later, Bowen retired to serve as then-Gov. Bill Clinton's chief of staff. Bowen later became president and CEO of Healthsource Arkansas Ventures Inc., served as dean of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law School and was chairman of the Philander Smith College capital campaign. Bowen was a founding board member of the Arkansas School for Math and Science and founding chairman of the Arkansas Science Technology Authority. The late Harvey Couch and the late William H. Kennedy Jr. round out the hall of fame's class of 2008. Couch, an entrepreneur from Calhoun, was known for bringing electricity to Arkansas. In 1900, he formed the North Louisiana Telephone Co. and in 1911 sold it to Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. Two years later he created Arkansas Power Company, buying up utilities in the state and connecting them. He also formed power companies in Mississippi and Louisiana and joined the three companies into what would become Entergy in 1996, 55 years after his death. During his lifetime, Couch developed Remmel Dam and Carpenter Dam for hydroelectric power from the Ouachita River. He also served as one of seven directors of President Herbert Hoover's newly created Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1931 before his death in 1941. "It's fun for all of us," Couch's granddaughter, Cathie Remmel Matthews, said of the induction. "Our grandpa not only was an incredible entrepreneur and did wonderful things for Arkansas, he did wonderful things for our family." Couch passed away when Matthews was six-weeks-old, but Matthews said she grew up hearing stories about him. Kennedy was a graduate of Hendrix College and Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University. He worked as vice president of industrial development in the early 1950s for Arkansas Power & Light to bring industry to the state. In 1957, he joined National Bank of Commerce of Pine Bluff, retiring as its board chairman in 1984. During his tenure there, he more than quadrupled the bank's assets. Kennedy was the first Arkansan elected as president of the American Bankers Association where 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. During his lifetime, he served a number of state and local organizations, including the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas State Council on Economic Education, the Arkansas Waterways Commission, the Pine Bluff Utility Commission, the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Public Library System and the Jefferson County United Way. Kennedy received a Purple Heart and Silver Star for service in World War II. He died in 1991. "We think that he's deserving of the honor and we think that its a recognition of his achievements that we're very happy about," his son, William H. Kennedy III, said. The Arkansas Business Hall of Fame was founded in 1999 and 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. |
