A quartet of Arkansas "businessmen" -- including a woman and a transformative Arkansas governor -- were honored with induction into the state's Business Hall of Fame on Feb. 12 in the Statehouse Convention Center.
The Hall is in and coordinated by the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville which always brings a lot of Northwest Arkansans to the capital city. It is consistently one of the prettiest ceremonies and toothsome dinners -- three meat servings? Pass the third fork! -- that grace the Statehouse Convention Center in a given year. According to the college's interim dean Matthew Waller, more than 700 turned out to salute the four new members.
• William T. Dillard II, 70, is the first son to join a father in the Hall. He began at the department store chain in 1967, serving as president from 1977 to 1998, chief executive officer until 2002, and now chairman and CEO. In 1998, he led the acquisition of The Mercantile Stores Co. of Cincinnati. Among his marks, Dillard's cultivation of its own exclusive brands, and its real estate portfolio.
• Patti Upton, 77, founded Aromatique, a decorative fragrances (and accessories) company out of Heber Springs. She sat on the board of directors for AT&T for almost two decades, and is credited with more than $1 million in philanthropy to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
• Dr. George Mitchell, 84, gave up his medical practice in 1968 to become medical director of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. In 1975, he was picked to be the nonprofit's CEO. Last year, the insurer made a $1 million endowment to create a chair in primary care inside the College of Medicine at UAMS.
• The late Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller (1967-1971) began Winrock Farms atop Petit Jean Mountain in 1953. He established Winrock International, a worldwide charitable endeavor. By 1967 when he was governor, Winrock Farms had 6,000 head of cattle spread over 34,000 acres in three states. As the first chairman of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission, Rockefeller welcomed about 600 new industrial plants, saw manufacturing wages grow 88 percent, and later, as governor, established the state's first minimum wage.
-- Photos and story by
Bobby Ampezzan
High Profile on 02/21/2016