Scott Hembree, Global Dental Technologies CEO, Dies at 55

Scott Hembree, the CEO of Bentonville-based Global Dental Technologies Inc., died Saturday in Rogers from complications due to diabetes. He was 55.

Arrangements are being handled by Edwards Funeral Home of Fort Smith. Services are scheduled for Wednesday at 11 a.m. at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Fort Smith.

Hembree, a Fort Smith native, joined Global Dental in March 2010 as the company’s CEO. Global Dental is a full-service dental lab servicing dental clinics across the United States. The company, founded in 2000, has 10 employees.

Hembree was the son of the late H.L. Hembree III, a prominent Fort Smith business leader who was chairman and CEO of Arkansas Best Corp. (now ArcBest Corp.) from 1973 to 1988.

Hembree, an Eagle Scout and a licensed pilot, graduated from Northside High School in Fort Smith and from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, according to his obituary.

He previously held executive positions with Hembree-owned companies Trans-American Tire and Trans-States Lines Inc. in Fort Smith, and Sugar Hill Farms Inc. in the Logan County town of Paris.

Hembree also served on several community boards including Fort Smith Regional Airport Commission and the statewide nonprofit Arkansas Community Foundation, of which he was a former chairman.

He was also a past board member of Stephens College, a women’s college in Columbia, Missouri. Hembree’s two daughters, Sara and Katie, both graduated from the school, as did his mother, the late Janelle Hembree. She earned an associate’s degree from the school when it was a two-year college, and went on to earn a degree from the University of Arkansas. The Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House, which houses the offices of the Arkansas Alumni Association, is named in her honor.

John Story, a close friend of Hembree’s and Global Dental’s general manager, remembered Hembree as a man with a heart “the size of a basketball.”

“I never saw him turn down his kids, or any of his friends for that matter,” Story said. “He would give you his last coke or his last sandwich.

“He was a very fair boss and also a great friend. I loved the man.”