Joe Fred Starr, Former Tyson Exec, Dies at 79

Joe Fred Starr, a Fayetteville businessman and former executive with Tyson Foods Inc. from 1969-2002, died Wednesday morning at Washington Regional Hospice, according to a report Thursday in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He was 79.

Starr was a close friend of late Tyson chairman Don Tyson. He served on the company’s board of directors until 2002 and was a vice president until 1996.

According to an official statement from Tyson’s son, company chairman John Tyson, Starr was an integral part of the company’s leadership team from the 1960s through the 1980s.

“These were the big growth years for our poultry business,” he wrote. “And Joe Fred’s advice and counsel as both a team member and a member of our board of directors was critically important to the company’s development.”

Starr was also a real estate developer, owning several commercial properties and apartment complexes in Washington County.

Among the developments are what is now known as the North Creekside Apartments and South Creekside Apartments on Leverett Avenue in Fayetteville. Starr sold the two properties in 2003 for just less than $10 million.

Starr, a graduate of both Fayetteville High School and the University of Arkansas, is survived by a wife and four children.

Funeral services will be Saturday, March 30, at 10 a.m. at Nelson-Berna Funeral Home in Fayetteville.