University of Arkansas announces honorary degree recipients
by April 3, 2019 8:48 am 687 views
Al Bell and Wilhelmenia “Chris” Hinton-Lee will receive honorary degrees from the University of Arkansas in May. (Al Bell photo credit: Stax Museum of American Soul Music)
Hall of Fame music industry executive Al Bell and pioneering architect Wilhelmenia “Chris” Hinton-Lee will receive honorary degrees from the University of Arkansas during the All-University commencement ceremony Saturday, May 11, in Bud Walton Arena. Both are leaders in their respective fields and both have strong ties to Arkansas.
Bell was the 2018-19 McIlroy Family Visiting Professor in the Visual and Performing Arts at the UA. Hinton-Lee, honored in 2012 with a University of Arkansas Distinguished Alumni award, will be the guest speaker for the All-University commencement.
Bell is the chairman and CEO of a career development company for recording artists called Al Bell Presents, and one of the state’s most influential music and entertainment executives. Bell relocated the business from North Little Rock to Bentonville last year.
A native Arkansan, Bell was inducted into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame in 2015, notably in recognition of his time as chairman and former owner of Stax Records, and former president of Motown Records Group.
From 1965 to 1975, Bell helped build Stax into one of the most influential record labels in the world, and at its height, the Memphis record label was the second-largest African-American-owned business in the U.S.
Hinton-Lee grew up in rural Mississippi and attended the University of Arkansas. In 1975, she became the first African American woman to graduate with a degree in architecture. This was the first of many “firsts” in her life and career. She had a successful 37-year career in the Army Corps of Engineers, where she was the first woman and first African American in virtually every leadership position she attained.
Hinton-Lee later served as project director in the Corps’ Medical Facilities Office, managing the $1.2 billion Department of Defense medical facilities construction program.
She was named the chief of engineering and construction at the Transatlantic Center, where she directed a staff of 80 architects and engineers in the design and construction of a multimillion-dollar program in the Middle East, Africa and Russia.
For more on this year’s honorary degree recipients, click here.