A nod to the traveling man

Lots of folks retire to keep from being on the road, but not Richard Hudson.

Hudson, the vice chancellor for government and community relations at the University of Arkansas, will be 70 when he retires on June 30, and there are more plans to travel.

But this time, in the future, he will see the world with his lovely wife Joanna. Travel is an acquired retirement activity, one they both seem to enjoy.

Hudson has already logged quite a in state few miles from the northwest corner of the state – first, from Fort Smith as he was an instructor and later manager of community and government relations for the various forms of what would become the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith; and then from the University of Arkansas’ flagship campus in Fayetteville.

Since 1993, he’s made an estimated 1,280 round trips to Little Rock from Fayetteville, and no telling how many since his announced retirement earlier last month. Those 1,280 or so round trips equals somewhere in the vicinity of 442,000 miles. If that statistic is not impressive to all you long-haul truck driver types, that’s an estimated 18 times around the Earth.

But there is much more than some bureaucrat sitting in an automobile and driving to meetings to Richard Hudson. He is a kind, witty, savvy  – and dare we say honest, yes, we do – lobbyist.

He started out from his rural Warren upbringing to obtaining a bachelor’s degree in political science from Ouachita Baptist University in 1966 and a master’s degree from Baylor University in 1968. Hudson began a teaching career at San Marcos Academy in Texas and found his way back to Arkansas teaching political science at Westark Community College (now the UAFS).

The political “bug” bit Hudson in 1979-80 when Fort Smith residents elected him to the Arkansas Constitutional Convention of 1979-80. He labored hard in his session, but, sadly Arkansas voters turned down the new, innovative document.

He toyed with the idea to fun for the Legislature, but sadly and smartly, he declined the bite of the political bug for the second time.

Returning to the two-year college classroom, administrators at Westark saw Hudson’s savvy political skills as an asset, and placed him in a government relations position and he flourished for the next dozen years.

UA Chancellor Dan Ferritor, also a yeoman on the trips back and forth to Little Rock, was an amateur pilot with a small plane and often flew on the round trip voyage. Hudson so impressed Ferritor with his work in Little Rock that the flagship campus hired him away in 1993 from his Fort Smith job. And the rest (of the two decades plus of success) has been a great run for the UA and its relationships with legislators.

Hudson, who is a low key kind of guy and never pushy, kept the UA’s agenda in the forefront no matter the scandals, fusses, spats, and drama often found on the system’s largest campus. He shyly admits the message gets more attention when the Razorback football and basketball teams are post-season bound.

But in reality, much of the long-range vision of the UA System and not only the flagship campus has occurred because Hudson translates the message for funding and understanding to the legislature without hesitation.

Locally, Hudson organized (and still manages) the Political Animals Club of Northwest Arkansas, which has a really-mixed political audience and membership. One key element of Hudson’s long-term exposure in the halls of the legislature – he knows how to pick a winner. No better example is Gov. Mike Beebe. Since 1996, when Hudson organized the group, Beebe has spoken five times – a record unequaled by another other politician.

Just like Beebe’s high approval rating, Hudson knew the young state senator from Searcy was a winner way back when.

Congratulations to Richard Hudson on the much deserved retirement this coming June. His predecessor, whom ever it may be, is not likely to equal his ground breaking status, or his trips around the earth from Fayetteville to Little Rock and back home again.