UA’s Walton College Announces Hall of Fame Inductees

Thomas E. Boyer, W.C. “Buddy” Coleman Jr., William L. Cravens and Frank Fletcher Jr. will be inducted into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame on Feb. 15.

That announcement was made via news release on Tuesday morning. The four men will join 58 others who have been enshrined since the hall was established by the University of Arkansas’ Sam M. Walton College of Business in 1999.

Walton College dean Eli Jones said the new inductees “represent the breadth of accomplishment by business leaders from Arkansas,” and that all members of the hall “continue to inspire the future leaders of our state and of the nation with their outstanding achievements in a wide variety of business endeavors.”

The induction ceremony will be held at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. The Hall of fame is permanently housed in the atrium of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development at the Walton College.

Boyer, of Amarillo, Texas, is the founder and owner of Micro Images, a Kodak document imaging systems broker and reseller. He is a graduate of the UA, where he was an All-American basketball player.

Coleman, of Little Rock, was chairman of the board and CEO of Coleman Dairy. He died in 2011.

Cravens, also of Little Rock, is a CPA and engineer who retired after working in banking and telecommunications management. He’s also director of the Oaklawn Jockey Club.

North Little Rock’s Fletcher is chairman of the board and CEO of the Frank Fletcher Companies. The holding company owns or controls 20 separate corporations.

The hall’s board of directors, based on nominations it receives each year, makes the selections. Larry T. Wilson, a UA graduate who is chairman and CEO of First Arkansas Bank & Trust in Jacksonville, chaired this year’s selection process.

Jones and selection committee members met with the inductees or their families to inform them of the honor.