Remembered: 2014 Notable Deaths

Significant contributors to the Northwest Arkansas business community died in 2014.

 

January

Stan Bedford, 60 — The founder, owner and CEO of Bedford Camera & Video died after battling with Parkinson’s Disease for several years. He opened the first store in Springdale in 1974. Jan. 8.

 

February

J.W. “Gabe” Gabel, 92 — Partnered with Jim Lindsey to launch Fayetteville-based real estate firm Lindsey & Associates Inc. in 1973. The two men had worked together during the offseason while Lindsey played professional football for the Minnesota Vikings from 1966 to 1972. Gabel remained part owner of the company. Feb. 16.

 

Bob Davis, 56 — A former Fayetteville city alderman, serving from 1999 to mid-2004. He was owner and operator of Eason Insurance Agency Inc. and was also a longtime member of the city’s Advertising & Promotion Commission before stepping down in 2013 because of health concerns. He would succumb to cancer. Feb. 19.

 

March

John Logan Burrow, 67 — Longtime Washington County Election Commission chairman, Democratic Party activist and attorney. He was appointed to the commission in 1984 and during the next three decades left it only for a short stint to fill a vacancy on the Washington County Quorum Court. He became chairman in 1995. March 10.

 

Bob Cheyne, 86 — Founded what became the Arkansas Radio Sports Network. Cheyne became the University of Arkansas’ first sports information director in 1948, a job he held for 22 years, and was the first play-by-play “Voice of the Razorbacks” in both football and basketball.  He was named Arkansas Sportscaster of the year six times by the National Association of Sportscasters.

Cheyne later worked with Cooper Communities Inc. of Bella Vista for 15 years as director of advertising and public relations. March 15.

 

April

Amelia Eldridge, 61 — A senior vice president and executive broker with Fayetteville-based Lindsey & Associates, Eldridge worked for the firm for 31 years. She died inside the company’s headquarters of an apparent suicide. April 16.

 

Willis Shaw, 95 — Founder of the Willis Shaw Express Inc. trucking company in Elm Springs and a member of the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame Class of 2009. Before starting WSE, Shaw was active in the poultry and produce business of the area, partnering in Kever and Shaw Feeds to operate a feed mill, hatchery and poultry farms.

Shaw was instrumental in the development of Beaver Lake and Willis Shaw Elementary School of Springdale was named in his honor in 2007. April 20.

 

June

Edwin G. Bradberry, 82 — Local business leader who founded Continental Ozark Inc. in Fayetteville in 1977. The company had 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 also tended to B & B Resources Inc., an investment firm located in Fayetteville, where he was president and CEO for 45 years. June 16.

 

August

Haskell Jackson, 82 — Retired poultry executive spent a combined 36 years employed by Tyson Foods Inc. and George’s Inc. Jackson, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer, accepted a job offer from Don Tyson in 1960 as an accountant, and was, in effect, the company’s chief financial officer from the early 1960s, into the 1970s.

In 1978, Jackson went to work for George’s, also as controller/secretary, and remained there until his retirement in 1996. Aug. 3.

 

October

Bob Lamb, 82 — President of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce from 1965 to 1990 and longtime member of the Northwest Arkansas Council. After leaving the State Chamber, Lamb and his wife, DeeDee, moved from Little Rock to Fayetteville, where he worked another 18 years as an officer and director for the Arkansas Western Gas Company. Oct. 25.

 

November

Ruth Whitaker, 77 — Whitaker served in the Arkansas Senate for 12 years (2001-2013) representing District 3, which includes Crawford and Franklin counties, and part of Washington County. Nov. 10.