2019: Notable deaths

Significant contributors to the Northwest Arkansas and Fort Smith metro business community died in 2019.

JANUARY
Dick Barclay, 81, Jan. 4 — Barclay, a longtime Rogers civic leader and former state representative, died from health complications due to Alzheimer’s.

He served as a Republican in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1976 until 1992. As a member of the Arkansas legislature Barclay helped to secure funding to establish NorthWest Arkansas Community College.

He later served as executive director of Budget, Legislative Affairs and Policy on Gov. Mike Huckabee’s first executive team. Barclay also served as the state’s chief fiscal officer and director of finance and administration.

Barclay served as chairman of the Benton County Republican Party, was a past commissioner for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, a past chairman of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and a past president of the Northwest Arkansas Council.

Lemuel “Lem” Tull, 85, Jan. 30 — Tull was a co-founder of Rogers-based architecture and engineering firm Crafton Tull.

In November 1963, he persuaded his friend and fellow highway department engineer Bob Crafton to join with him and move to Rogers, a city of approximately 6,300 people, to open a private consulting engineering company. Their first office was out of a couple of motel rooms.

Before retiring in 1996, Tull saw the firm experience steady growth in business and number of employees, necessitating moves into larger facilities and expansion to several branch offices.

APRIL
Hugh H. Brewer Jr., 82, April 22 — Brewer spent his career as an engineer with the Southwestern Electric Power Co. and McClelland Engineers before purchasing Upchurch Electrical Supply Co. in Fayetteville in 1970, where he served as the president and chief executive officer until his retirement.

Brewer received multiple honors and awards from the University of Arkansas and the Department of Engineering for his years of service and leadership. Brewer also served as president or chairman of multiple organizations over the years. In addition, he was a member of the board of governors of Washington Regional Medical Center.

MAY
Robert Peiser, 71, May 22 — Peiser was one of the architects of the financial turnaround of Van Buren-based USA Truck. He joined the USA Truck board in February 2012 and was named board chair in November that year, a

position he held until resigning the day before his death, following a 10-year battle with prostate cancer.

JUNE
Linda Seubold, 76, June 5 — Seubold was a longtime, award-winning journalist, reporting news and writing “Offbeat,” a feature column for the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith, from 1984 to 1999.

In 2000, she co-founded Entertainment Fort Smith Magazine and was its editor-in-chief and columnist.

Scott Crook, 72, June 10 — Crook was the co-founder and owner of longtime outdoor outfitter Pack Rat Outdoor Center. He and his wife, Carolyn, started Pack Rat in 1973 from their garage, selling Old Town canoes to earn extra money. The business outgrew four different buildings through the years until finally, in 2001, Crook built a new 15,000-square-foot, $1.8 million building at the corner of Gregg Avenue and Sunbridge Drive in Fayetteville.

JULY
Zac Stuckey, 41, July 19 — The Fayetteville businessman died in a motorcycle accident in Fayetteville. Stuckey and his wife, Kelly, owned and operated Crown Beauty Bar, with two locations in Fayetteville.

Joye R. Kelley, 80, July 23 — One of the first two women elected to the Rogers School Board in 1983. She served until 2012 and was board president for 20 years. She oversaw the construction of 14 schools — including a second high school — during her time on the board.

Kelley was inducted into the Rogers Educators Hall of Fame and is member of the Rogers Public Education Foundation’s Wall of Distinction. Following her retirement from the board, the district administration building was named the Joye R. Kelley Building.

Max McGaugh, 75, July 27 — McGaugh was a fourth generation Northwest Arkansan and Bentonville native, and was the retired owner of Bentonville business McGaugh Auto Parts. His second career was as a successful commercial real estate agent.

McGaugh was past president of the Bentonville Chamber, Jaycees, Kiwanis and the Bentonville School Board. In 2018, the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce established the Max McGaugh Award, given annually to recognize a successful small business.

AUGUST
Charles O’Donnell, 85, Aug. 13 — O’Donnell co-founded the nationally recognized Dickson Street Bookshop in Fayetteville with his partner, Don Choffel, in 1978.

Terrell “Terry” Bowen, 61, Aug. 27 — Bowen was recruited to be the founding chair of the Northwest Arkansas chapter of global peer advisory organization Vistage International. It launched in 2016.

Bowen spent the bulk of his professional career in his native Missouri. For 24 years, he was corporate vice president of the Fortune 500 company Leggett & Platt Inc. in Carthage, Mo.

After that, Bowen served in a variety of executive roles and board positions for branding agency Noble Communications Corp. in Springfield, Mo.; Christian apparel company Kerusso Inc. in Berryville; and food supplier 3D Corporate Solutions LLC in Monett, Mo.

Bowen was a founding investor of OakStar Bank in Springfield, Mo., and he and his wife owned a retail sewing products store in Fayetteville, Sew in Heaven.

He died in a motorcycle accident while on vacation in Colorado.

SEPTEMBER
Tarver Sr., 79, Sept. 8 — Tarver worked in the real estate industry for 45 years, ending his career as senior vice president and executive broker at Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney Faucette in Fayetteville.

His career also included the following: vice president of East Mortgage Banking Co., president of Northwest Title, president of Tarver and Associates Real Estate Co. and instructor of real estate at the University of Arkansas.

Walter Turnbow, 95, Sept. 9 — Turnbow was a noted community and business leader in Springdale. He started his career at Steele Canning Co., ultimately becoming president. Turnbow later became vice chairman of the board and CEO of First State Bank of Springdale in 1977. He retired as board chairman in 1992.

Turnbow’s community leadership was marked by numerous awards and honors. To name just a few, Northwest Technical Institute named its library the Walter Turnbow Library, the Springdale Water and Sewer Commission dedicated its office facility as the Walter L. Turnbow Administration Building, Walter Turnbow Elementary School welcomed its first students in 2006, and the city of Springdale dedicated Walter Turnbow Park in 2014.

Don Pitts, 80, Sept. 9 — Pitts was chairman of Springdale-based United Holding Co., the family owned entity that owns United Bank and United Built Homes.

Jim Rieff, 79, Sept. 19 — Rieff was a longtime banking executive in Prairie Grove. He started his career at the Farmers and Merchants Bank as a teller in 1961 and retired as president in 1996. Arvest Bank bought the bank in June 1992, and it was folded into the Arvest charter in 2001.

Rieff was also a longtime board member of Prairie Grove Schools.

OCTOBER
John Settle, 67, Oct. 26 — Settle died suddenly after suffering a heart attack at a Fort Smith gym. Settle, an attorney in Fort Smith for more than 40 years, served as the city’s prosecutor since September 2008. He also served as Sebastian County district court judge from 1987 to 1990.

NOVEMBER
Jack Moseley, 82, Nov. 15 — Moseley was a veteran journalist and editor of the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith from 1975 to 2001. He was one of the first Mark Ethridge Graduate Journalism Fellows in the country and a founding director of the nation’s first think tank for Journalism, New Directions for News at the University of Missouri.

Moseley served on the boards of Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce and Bost Foundation and was instrumental in creating Leadership Fort Smith and the Old Fort Festival. He also created the Community Christmas Card that had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local veterans, families and children.

Moseley was one of the last newspaper reporters to interview President John F. Kennedy just minutes before the president was assassinated in Dallas.

DECEMBER
Mike Kenney, 59, Dec. 30 — Kenney was elected to the Siloam Springs Board of Directors in 1992 and served until 2000. He served as a Republican in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 2002 until 2008, representing District 87. From 2006 to 2008, he was chairman of the House Education Committee.

Kenney worked for Allen Canning Co. in Siloam Springs for nearly 30 years.