Waltons Still Wealthiest In Arkansas, World

Walton Family

Bentonville

2000 Estimated Wealth: $108 billion

The world’s wealthiest family owns 38 percent of the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Founded by a down-to-earth patriarch, the late Sam Walton, Wal-Mart’s phenomenal growth of more than 1.7 billion shares of stock (mostly held in family trust) continues, with wealth up more than 40 percent in the past year and more than double since mid-1998.

Helen Walton, now considered the wealthiest woman in the world, signed bank notes so Sam could open the first store in Rogers in 1962. She and daughter Alice are officially residents of Mineral Wells, Texas, although Helen actually lives in Bentonville. Establishing out-of-state residency is common among the state’s wealthiest families as a means to avoid Arkansas’ 7 percent state income tax, a considerably higher levy than what’s imposed by bordering states.

Texas has no state income tax.

Robson, as reserved as his father was sanguine, delivered papers as a teenager and competed in the Ironman Triathlon in 1985. Now Robson guides Wal-Mart’s 3,810 total stores, $165 billion in sales and 1.14 million employees worldwide as chairman. He’s known for conducting daily meetings via a satellite conferencing system from his home in Aspen, Col.

Son John is a California resident, vice president of Walton Enterprises and a Wal-Mart director. Son Jim chairs the $2.6 billion Arvest Bank Group Inc. and presides over Walton Enterprises and Community Publishers Inc. in Bentonville. The Walton family ownership in Arvest would fetch at least $400 million.

Alice led efforts for development of Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport and holds stock in Leggett & Platt Inc. and Cannon Express Inc.

In June 1999, Wal-Mart purchased Asda Group PLC, Great Britain’s third largest supermarket chain, for $10.8 billion.

Don Tyson Family

Springdale

2000 Estimated Wealth: $1.04 billion

Hard times in the poultry industry have reduced the Tyson family’s wealth by 60 percent since last year — yet the Tysons continue to be one of only four families in the state with fortunes estimated at better than $1 billion. The others include the Walton’s of Bentonville, the Jack, Warren and Witt Stephens families of Little Rock ($3.8 billion) and Little Rock’s Winthrop Paul Rockefeller ($1.1 billion).

Sixty-five years after its initial shipment of chickens from Springdale to Chicago, Tyson Foods Inc. remains solidified as the poultry industry’s giant.

The company was founded by John Tyson Sr., who took it public in 1963. When he died in 1967, Tyson had less than 2 percent of the U.S. chicken market. His son, Don, chairman until 1995 and still the company’s majority stockholder, grew the company to a market share of 25 percent. Don is now an official resident of Florida, another noted tax haven, but spends much of his time in Springdale.

Tyson Foods spent $1 billion to buy Hudson Foods in 1998 before Don’s son, John Tyson, and former CFO Wayne Britt were promoted to chairman and CEO, respectively. In April of this year, Britt suddenly retired and Johnny took over both roles with the company.

Tyson Foods is trying to recover from a major drop in stock prices over the last year, falling from a 52-week high of $22.88 per share in July 1999 to $8.50 in July 2000.

The company continues trying to expand, reportedly getting in a bidding war for California-based Zacky Farms. Also, Tyson Foods’ wholly owned subsidiary, Cobb-Vantress Inc. of Siloam Springs, finalized in June its acquisition of Maine-based Avian Farms USA Inc.

The company has 65,000 employees and 72 plants in 16 states.

John A. Cooper Family

Bella Vista

2000 Estimated Wealth: $ 490 million

Cooper Communities Inc., founded in 1954, has been one of the leaders in developing planned communities.

Cooper Communities includes Bella Vista and Hot Springs Village in Arkansas, Stonebridge Village near Branson, Mo., Tellico Village in Loudon, Tenn., and Savannah Lakes Village in McCormick, S.C. Cooper sold off Cherokee Village in north Arkansas in 1992.

Cooper Communities employs 673 people.

John Jr. joined the company in 1962 and was named president/CEO in 1968, a post he held until 1990. He stepped back into company’s top post in 1998. John Jr. serves as director of and stockholder in Entergy Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.

David Glass

Bentonville/Kansas City

2000 Estimated Wealth: $302 million

Successor to Sam Walton as head of the nation’s largest retailer, Glass retired as CEO, of Wal-Mart Inc. in 1999 and a took position as chairman of Wal-Mart’s executive committee of the board. He moved this year to Kansas City, Mo., where he purchased the Kansas City Royals major league baseball team. A 29 percent increase in his wealth since last year bumped him way up on Arkansas Business’ statewide list of “Wealthiest Arkansans.”

Sam Walton discovered Glass working for the Consumer Markets chain and recruited him to join Wal-Mart as EVP of finance in 1976.

Described by Walton as “one of the finest retail talents” he had ever met, Glass became CFO and vice chairman in 1982, COO and president of company in 1984 and CEO in 1988. Credited with introducing technological advances that have made the logistics of the company possible. Voted Chief Executive of the Year by readers of Chief Executive magazine in 1995.

Donald Soderquist

Rogers

2000 Estimated Wealth: $273 million

Donald Soderquist’s wealth comes from stock in Wal-Mart Stores Inc., where he was senior vice chairman until announcing his retirement in July at the age of 66. He is said to have been the Wal-Mart executive who most resembled company founder Sam Walton in personal style; Soderquist once reportedly showed up at a Saturday morning company meeting in shorts and T-shirt.

It took Walton 17 years after their first meeting to persuade Soderquist to join the company in 1980. In 1988, he was named vice chairman and COO.

Soderquist is a graduate of one small, Christian college — Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. — and a long-time benefactor of another — John Brown University at Siloam Springs, site of the Donald G. Soderquist Center for Business Leadership and Ethics

Allen Family

Siloam Springs

2000 Estimated Wealth: $246 million

Infighting between siblings Roderick “Rick” Allen and Delbert “Pete” Allen dominated the business of Allen Canning Co. throughout 1999 and into 2000. The fourth largest private company in Northwest Arkansas (with 1999 revenue of $284 million) and the nation’s largest independent canning company, Allen Canning has been ranked among the nation’s top 20 performers by Poultry Magazine.

Rick bought out his brother in 1999. The extremely private family recently owned more than 58 percent of Arkansas State Bank in Siloam Springs, but there are widespread rumblings that the Allens may also be in the process of parting ways in the banking business.

The Allen family’s business holdings are said to be vast and wealth estimates are considered very conservative.

Product line for the company, which has 1,100 employees and operates three plants, includes a number of canned vegetables, the Popeye label and other Southern foods.

J.B. Hunt

Fayetteville

2000 Estimated Wealth: $242 million

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. in Lowell is the largest publicly traded truckload carrier in the nation, and J.B. Hunt family members own 16 million shares of the company’s stock.

Hunt, who dropped out of school in the eighth grade to support his family, worked in timber mills, picked cotton, harvested grain, auctioned livestock, served in the infantry during World War II, and later drove trucks for 12 years.

He formed his company in 1962, hauling rice hulls from the Delta to Northwest Arkansas. He purchased a Kansas trucking company in 1969 and relocated it to Bentonville. In 1971, Hunt incorporated the company and moved to Lowell.

The company has more than 7,750 tractors and 28,000 trailers.

The company struggled in March of 2000 as its stock price plummeted to $10.50 per share.

On July 1, the company commenced operations of Transplace.com, a logistics business in which Hunt has joined forces with five other large truckload carriers.

Hunt resides just east of Fayetteville and owns three cattle ranches in Northwest Arkansas. His son, Bryan, owns Best Motor Co. in Rogers.

Jack Shewmaker

Bentonville

2000 Estimated Wealth: $213 million

Jack Shewmaker continues to impact today’s business world by traveling internationally to speak about large retail stores. First becoming a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. district manager in 1970, Shewmaker has been on the board of directors since 1977. After retiring from his position as president and COO, Shewmaker, now 61, continues to serve as a retail consultant. In his 1992 biography, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton called him “a brilliant, shoot-from-the-hip executive with a store manager’s mentality.”

His Wal-Mart stock holdings have soared from $152 million last year to $213 million this year.

Collier Wenderroth Jr.

Fort Smith

2000 Estimated Wealth: $207 million

Like everyone else in the poultry industry, Collier Wenderoth Jr.’s wealth has decreased dramatically since last summer. At that time, it was estimated at $370 million, and he ranked ninth on the “Wealthiest Arkansans” list.

Wenderoth’s father, Collier Wenderoth Sr., started OK Feed Mills Inc. in 1933 with 12 employees. The Fort Smith-based livestock feed plant grew to become OK Industries Inc., the largest private food processing company in the state and the 16th-largest vertically integrated poultry company in the U.S.

The company posted an estimated $800 million in revenue in 1999.

OK Industries is the parent company of four wholly owned subsidiaries: OK Farms Inc., OK Foods Inc., OK Transportation Inc. and Ecology Management Inc.

Wenderoth Jr., who left Fort Smith to attend college and serve in the U.S. Air Force, took over at the death of his father in 1955.

He built its first poultry processing plant in 1959 and added a hatchery in 1962 and a new feed mill in 1965. OK now owns hatcheries in Heavener, Okla., and Stigler, Okla., and a deboning plant in Heavener. OK Industries now employs more than 4,300.

Don Harp Family

Fayetteville

2000 Estimated Wealth: $179 million

Harvard and Floy Harp started a grocery store in 1930 in downtown Springdale with money saved from working in the citrus fields of California. Their son, Don, joined the family business in 1953 after his discharge from the Air Force. He opened a Food Palace with his father.

Don Harp led the expansion of the grocery store chain after his father’s death in an automobile accident in 1968. After retiring as president of the company in 1995, he left control of the grocery chain to his younger brother, Gerald. Harps has more than 40 stores in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.

Don Harp now operates Harps Properties, developing housing subdivisions and managing rental property.

He has disputed Arkansas Business’ previous estimates of his wealth. Harps Food Stores had sales of $332 million in 1999.

Carl D. Corley Sr.

Fort Smith

2000 Estimated Wealth: $179 million

Owns Carco Transportation Systems Inc., the giant Fort Smith truckload carrier with $128.1 million in 1999 operating revenue and 1,000 employees.

The company Corley founded in 1962 has become very diversified. Through CCC Express Inc., Corley leases fleets of trucks to other companies. Operates Hertz Rent-A-Car franchises throughout Arkansas and sells Navistar and John Deere equipment in Fort Smith.

Willard Walker Family

Fayetteville

2000 Estimated Wealth: $150 million

Pat and Willard Walker, two of Northwest Arkansas’ most generous philanthropists, both battled poor health in 1999. Their early Wal-Mart Stores Inc. investments have churned over the years into an extraordinary amount of wealth.

Because of their philanthropy, their fortune is estimated to be about the same as last year despite the appreciation in the value of Wal-Mart stock. The couple retains a tremendous amount of Wal-Mart stock and oil holdings. Willard was the first manager of Sam Walton’s five-and-dime store in Fayetteville. It did $90,000 in its first year of business in 1952.

The Walker’s philanthropies include the University of Arkansas’ Pat & Willard Walker Pavilion in Fayetteville, the Arkansas Cancer Research Center in Little Rock and more than $2 million toward the 1994 completion of the UA’s Baum Stadium baseball facility. They also have given huge donations to the Harvey & Bernice Jones Center for Families in Springdale and planned facilities at John Brown University in Siloam Springs.

Their son and daughter-in-law, Johnny Mike and Debbie Walker, operate a ranch near Fayetteville and a construction company.

F.S. “Sheridan”

Garrison Family

Harrison

2000 Estimated Wealth: $150 million

Sheridan Garrison sold his first trucking company because of a contract with the Teamsters union he believed would eventually destroy the company. It turned out to be a smart move.

Harrison-based American Freightways Inc. has expanded into 40 continental states. And through exclusive marketing partners, Freightways also serves Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Caribbean islands, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Central America and South America.

Garrison’s father, Ben, formed Garrison Motor Freight in 1955. Sheridan bought the company from his brother, Ben Jr., in 1977, but sold it in 1979.

Sheridan founded Arkansas Freightways in 1982, took it public in 1989 and renamed it American Freightways in 1993. He stepped down as CEO after 17 years, but remains the company’s chairman.

His son, Tom, is the CEO and president, while another son, Will, is the corporate vice president, secretary, treasurer and chief operating officer.

The less-than-truckload carrier actually benefited during the gas price hike earlier in 2000, offering more efficient transportation to customers.

Freightways is expanding its facilities in Harrison, adding a 90,000-SF wing, a 5,000-SF credit union and a 2,700-SF print shop. A new parking lot, two retention ponds and added landscaping are also part of the project that will add to the present 161,000 SF facilities on 51 acres.

The company has a total of 8,859 drivers and 35 hub sites. There are more than 15,200 employees operating over 26,400 pieces of revenue equipment from a network of 238 customer centers.

H.C. “Dude” Crain Jr.

Fort Smith

2000 Estimated Wealth: $130 million

Dude Crain started Crain Industries Inc. in Fort Smith in 1963 as a producer of foam and filler for use in furniture, bedding, packaging and carpet cushioning. Its business divisions included Base Line Designs, a furniture manufacturing company.

Crain Industries and all of its divisions were sold in 1995 for an estimated $130 million to Dallas investment company Hicks Muse Tate & Furst. Crain Industries’ estimated annual revenue at the time of sale was $230 million.

Crain owned warehouse space in Fort Smith and runs Dude Inc., a Fort Smith company he formed in 1980.

Hugh Lawson Hembree Family

Fort Smith

2000 Estimated Wealth: $122 million

H.L. Hembree helped pioneer trucking and medical care in the Fort Smith area. Hembree co-founded Arkansas Best Corp. with his father-in-law, R. A. Young Jr. He’s a past chairman and chief executive officer of the Fort Smith conglomerate that weathered a hostile takeover attempt to spawn Riverside Furniture Corp., USA Truck Inc., Treadco Inc., Trans-States Lines and at least seven other companies.

H.L.’s brother-in-law, Robert Young III, now is chairman and chief executive officer of Arkansas Best. One of his sons, Scott Hembree, is chairman of Trans-States Lines, which was bought by management in 1989.

The Hembree family parlayed $20 million in stock from the sale of First Merchants Financial Corp. in 1995 to more than $60 million worth of stock in First American Corp.

Hembree owns two banks in Texas as well as Sugarhill Farms, which raises corn, cattle and pigs. His son, Lawson, runs Sugarhill Farms. Trans-States posted $67 million in 1998 hauling general and hazardous freight and is one of the state’s largest private companies.

In the 1960s, Hembree helped start St. Edward Mercy Medical Center, where the cancer center bears his name.

Hudson Family

Rogers

2000 Estimated Wealth: $111 million

A year ago, James T. “Red” Hudson’s family wealth was estimated at $250 million. Now it’s a mere $111 million — assuming the family didn’t jettison its nearly 6 million shares of Tyson Foods Inc. stock before it plummeted 60 percent.

After 26 years with Ralston Purina, Hudson founded Hudson Foods Inc. of Rogers in 1972 with about $100,000, “and that was mostly borrowed.”

After an outbreak of E. coli bacteria from one of his beef processing plants led to a massive beef recall and a landslide of negative publicity, Hudson sold the fifth-largest poultry company in America to Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale in January 1998. Hudson Foods had $1.7 billion in sales during its last year.

The sale gave Hudson family members 5,885,958 shares of Tyson stock and $82 million cash.

Hudson now owns Hudson & Associates, a finance company based in Rogers that is involved in poultry operations in Poland.

Mark Simmons Family

Siloan Springs

2000 Estimated Wealth: $106 million

Mark Simmons ran the day-to-day operations of Simmons Foods Inc. from 1968 to 1999. Consolidating his work to the duties of chairman, Simmons named Lindy M. “Buddy” Pilgrim CEO in the spring of 2000.

Pilgrim, the former chief operating officer of Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. in Pittsburgh, said he planned no strategic changes for the firm, which had $420 million in 1999 gross sales, up 5 percent from $400 million in 1998.

Simmons Foods, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1999, was founded by Mark’s father, M.H. “Bill” Simmons, and has evolved into a diversified poultry empire under the current chairman’s leadership.

It was ranked among the industry’s top performers for 1999 by Poultry magazine.

The poultry industry’s sagging values have pummeled the Simmons family’s wealth, which was estimated at $210 million a year ago.

The family also owns nearly 5 percent of Arkansas State Bank of Siloam Springs, another industry in which values are depressed in comparison to last year.

Gene George Family

Springdale

2000 Estimated Wealth: $96 million

The principals at George’s Inc. have diversified their finances from owning one of the leading producers of eggs and chicken to having holdings in a propane gas company, three truck stops, two live-haul operations and sizable cattle holdings.

A third generation of Georges today runs George’s Inc., founded almost 80 years ago.

The George family were early investors in First National Bank of Springdale and its holding company, Financial Investment Corp., which sold in 1994 to First Tennessee National Corp. That sale netted Gene George about $7.8 million and his son, Gary, about $4.6 million.

Peterson Family

Decatur

2000 Estimated Wealth: $91 million

Worldwide breeding stock marketer, Peterson Industries Inc., does nearly $200 million in annual sales from the remote Benton County town of Decatur. The company employs 1,450 people and operates one plant at Decatur.

The Peterson family, including Lloyd, Dorothy Mae and Lorranyne, and the business hold more than 90 percent of Decatur Bancshares Inc., valued at an estimated $32 million. Lloyd Peterson was long-time member of J.B. Hunt Transportation Services Inc.’s board.

McGruder Family

Fort Smith and Cassville, Mo.

2000 Estimated Wealth: $70 million

K-Mac Enterprises, the McGruder family enterprise, was the nation’s second fast-food franchisee to cook up a plan for “co-branding.” Its marriage of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell has made significant inroads in the central Arkansas fast-food market.

K-Mac now has 142 restaurants in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, including 15 that share a KFC and Taco Bell logo. The company purchased another 12 KFCs in Hot Springs, North Little Rock, Pine Bluff and Van Buren from the Haynie Co. last year.

The Fort Smith enterprise was founded in 1964 by Ken McGruder, who began by running franchises for Griff’s Hamburgers and opened his first combined KFC-Taco Bell location in 1993. The 36-year-old company recently added a Taco Bell to the KFC in Sherwood and is adding a Taco Bell to its KFC on McCain Boulevard in North Little Rock.

McGruder and his early partner, Kenny King, sold the business in 1997 to Brent McGruder, chief financial officer Jon Dyer and chief operating officer Sam Fiori.

McGruder has retired to Missouri and Brent McGruder, who launched his career working in a Fayetteville Taco Bell, is now president. The company posted a 15-percent increase in revenues in 1999 — to $106.1 million. Through Golden Partners Inc., the family also holds an interest in Golden Corral restaurants in Branson, Mo., Fort Smith, North Little Rock and Springfield, Mo.

Keenan Family

Fayetteville

2000 Estimated Wealth: $61 million

A large portion of this family’s wealth comes from the $55.6 million sale of Pace Industries Inc. to Leggett & Platt Inc. in May 1996. Pace Industries, originally founded by Jess Keenan, specializes in aluminum die-cast products, including barbecue grills.

Established in Harrison in 1970, Pace Industries included at least 12 locations before the company sold. James T. Keenan remains a consultant to the company.

Douglas Parker Sr. Family

Fort Smith

2000 Estimated Wealth: $54 million

Kyle Parker, Douglas Parker’s son, has generated wealth for the family through his Internet legal information company Loislaw.com Inc.

Formed in 1987, the Van Buren company went public last September. Its stock shot up to $47.50 a share before settling back down below $10. The company — which is competing against well-established giants Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw — provides legal information from 1,800 databases, including nearly all federal and state courts.

Both Kyle Parker and Douglas Parker are attorneys. Kyle Parker conceived the venture while attending Franklin Pierce Law School in Concord, N.H., as a way to provide low-cost legal research. The family’s combined holdings — including those of Kyle , Douglas and Melanie Parker — amount to more than 6 million shares of the company.

Chris Whitt

Fort Smith

2000 Estimated Wealth: $50 million

Chris Whitt’s wealth is attributed to the sale of his company, Air Systems Inc. of Fort Smith, a manufacturer of cabinets and furnishings, to Mercury Capital of New York in October 1999. The sales price was not disclosed, but the $50 million estimate is conservative based on 1998 revenue of $85 million.

Jim Lindsey

Fayetteville

2000 Estimated Wealth: $47 million

Jim Lindsey, a former University of Arkansas and Minnesota Vikings football player, used his math degree to make a bigger impact in Arkansas real estate than NFL gridirons.

A native of Forrest City, Lindsey used a $75,000 signing bonus and a friendly hometown loan to purchase some land in north Fayetteville in 1966. He made a huge profit three years later when he sold the land to developers of the Northwest Arkansas Mall.

He has proved his first real estate transaction was no fluke by building a real estate empire in Northwest Arkansas. Lindsey & Associates, which he formed after retiring from football in 1973, has sales of more than $188 million in 1999.

Also, Lindsey builds, owns and operates more apartment units than any company in state.

Lindsey owns about $11 million in Reynie Rutledge’s (No. 33) First Security Bancorp. of Searcy.

Samuel Sicard Family

Fort Smith

2000 Estimated Wealth: $42 million

The Sicard family leads Fort Smith-based First Bank Corp., the second-largest nonpublic bank holding company in state, behind Jim Walton’s Arvest Bank Group Inc.

The company’s flagship operation is Fort Smith’s 128-year-old First National Bank. Other holdings include Citizens Bank & Trust in Van Buren and National Bank of Salisaw, Okla.

The family bought River Valley Bank in Lavaca in 1998 and merged its branch operation into the Fort Smith and Van Buren operations.

Sicard’s great-grandfather, Samuel McLoud, was president of bank in 1907. In 1909, McLoud authorized Fort Smith’s first high-rise — an eight-story building that still houses the bank.

In 1977, Samuel Sicard became the fourth generation to become president. Sicard, also chairman and CEO, told Arkansas Business, “Our position is still the same. We’re really not interested in selling as long as we can compete.”

Family includes Sicard’s mother, Lucy Kathryn Harper Sicard, and his children, Melissa Caroline Sicard and Samuel Timothy Sicard.

Robert A. Young III Family

Fort Smith

2000 Estimated Wealth: $37 million

In 1951, attorney Robert “Bob” Young Jr. was searching for a buyer for three friends’ 28-year-old trucking company when he decided to buy it himself.

His son, Robert A. Young III, is now president and CEO of Arkansas Best Corp., whose divisions include ABF Freight System Inc., G.I. Trucking Co., Treadco Inc. and Clipper Express Co.

Robert Young III also has major stock holdings in First Bank Corp. of Fort Smith, and Mosler Inc., a Hamilton, Ohio, manufacturer of banking equipment.

While the value of the family’s Arkansas Best Corp. stock has grown from $19 million to $22 million over the past year, the value of First Bank Corp. holdings has declined from $23 million to $15 million.

Leland E. Tollett

Rogers

2000 Estimated Wealth: $37 million

The former chairman and CEO of Tyson Foods Inc., Tollett, 63, retired in 1998 after 39 years with the Springdale-based poultry producer. During Tollett’s tenure at Tyson Foods, the company went from processing 15 million chickens per year in 1959 to 2.3 billion birds a year in 1998. Tyson Foods is responsible for about 30 percent of all poultry processed by the industry.

Tollett’s poultry-based fortune has suffered over the past year. His estimated wealth has dropped from $70 million a year ago, and he dropped from No. 52 to No. 89 on the “Wealthiest Arkansans” list.

James E. Wilkinson Family

Greenwood

2000 Estimated Wealth: $36 million

The Wilkinson family’s involvement in Farmers Bank in Greenwood dates back to its 1907 inception, when W.N. Wilkinson started as the bank’s first cashier. It was a two-man operation run out of the corner of a store in the Greenwood square, said Ed Wilkinson, W.N. Wilkinson’s grandson.

The store owner’s son opened the first account at the bank, depositing 38 cents, Wilkinson said. Today, Farmers Bank has about $139 million in assets and eight locations.

Over time, the Wilkinson family has managed to acquire controlling interest in the bank and today owns 100 percent of the the bank’s holding company, Wilkinson Banking Corp. W.N. Wilkinson held nearly every position in the bank, from cashier to chairman, as did his son, Means Wilkinson. Means Wilkinson died in 1991.

Ed Wilkinson, a state representative, is the bank’s president; his brother, Stanhope Wilkinson, is its CEO; and their mother, Elizabeth Wilkinson, is chairman.

H.C. Schmieding

Family

Springdale

2000 Estimated Wealth: $35 million

The owners of the H.C. Schmieding Produce wholesale operation also develop office buildings and retail space, such as Signature Square in Springdale.

The produce company has estimated revenue of $87 million. Depressed market prices for produce operations has dropped the family’s estimated wealth from $64 million last year.

Hernreich Family

Fort Smith

2000 Estimated Wealth: $34 million

The Hernreich Family owned Sigma Broadcast Inc., a Fort Smith-based television company that owned KHBS/KHOG-TV, Channels 29/49, an ABC network affiliate.

The family sold Sigma in 1997 to Argyle Television Co. of San Antonio (Hearst-Argyle Corp.) for an estimated $34 million. Robert Hernreich and wife, Becky, now live in Vail, Colo. Robert’s sister, Cindy Hernreich-Beller, remains in Fort Smith.

H. Lee Scott Jr.

Rogers

2000 Estimated Wealth: $32 million

Lee Scott, 50, has risen through the ranks at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to become CEO and president of the world’s largest retailer. Scott, a 21-year employee of the Bentonville-based company, was named to the head job last January, replacing David Glass.

He began his career in the company’s logistics department and eventually helped build the company’s distribution centers and its hub-and-spoke distribution network.

He has been groomed for the position for the past several years, moving to the retail side of the company three years ago.

Thomas M. Coughlin

Bentonville

2000 Estimated Wealth: $32 million

Thomas Coughlin, 50, is another recently promoted Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive. Last fall, he replaced H. Lee Scott Jr. (No. 97) as president and CEO of the Wal-Mart stores division. Coughlin is also an executive vice president of the company.

E.G. Bradberry Family

Fayetteville

2000 Estimated Wealth: $30 million

In 1977, Edwin G. Bradberry founded Continental Ozark Inc., a Fayetteville-based company in the business of transporting, storing, terminaling and wholesale marketing petroleum products, primarily unleaded gasoline, diesel oil and jet fuel.

Continental Ozark marked annual sales of more than $500 million with seven locations in four states when the assets sold to TransMontaigne in April 1995. Afterward, Bradberry owned about 1.5 percent of the stock in TransMontaigne.

Bradberry now tends to B & B Resources Inc., an investment firm located in Fayetteville.

Roland S. Boreham Jr.

Fort Smith

2000 Estimated Wealth: $30 million

Roland Boreham moved to Fort Smith from Los Angeles to become vice president of sales for Baldor Electric Co. and has been the director of the company since 1980.

Boreham, 75, also serves as a director of USA Truck Inc.