Longtime chamber leader Paul Harvel has died

Paul Harvel, an admired and proven leader in Arkansas chambers of commerce, economic development and the agri industry for more than five decades, died Friday (Jan. 12) in Hot Springs. He was 80.

In July 2014, the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) awarded Harvel the Life Member Award, the chamber of commerce profession’s highest individual honor. It is bestowed in recognition of a lifetime of business community leadership and service to the association and chamber of commerce profession. At the time, only 42 individuals in the ACCE’s 100-year history had received the award.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe said there are not many parts of Arkansas that Harvel did not help in some way.

“It’s a big loss, obviously. He touched so many communities with his expertise and his knowledge. There are a lot of communities and a lot of places in Arkansas that benefitted from all of his wisdom. … We were friends in addition to helping and working with each other on mutually beneficial projects for the state of Arkansas,” Beebe said.

Harvel began his chamber career in 1967 with the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. One of his highlights there included being part of a group that created Pulaski County Technical College, which now has an enrollment of 12,000, four regional locations and a new culinary school.

He left Little Rock after six years to be CEO of the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce. Other chamber jobs included head of the chambers in Enid, Okla., and Midland and Amarillo, Texas.
In 1985, he returned to Little Rock as the chamber CEO.

“The Little Rock Chamber’s total assets rose from $70,000 to over $10 million during his 21-year tenure. He conceptualized and built the Little Rock Regional Chamber’s new home and economic development center. The $8.5 million building was completed in 2001 and paid for in 3-1/2 years. It stands today as one of the nation’s premier chamber and marketing facilities,” noted an ACCE statement.

Following the Little Rock Chamber, Harvel became president and CEO of the Arkansas State Chamber, where he started Leadership Arkansas, and, in two years, saw total income rise from $800,000 to $1.8 million and membership grow from 650 to 1,400. Harvel was also appointed by Gov. Beebe as a member of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

Harvel was also CEO of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce. By the time he stepped down from that job in 2013, he had led an effort to secure more than $2 million for a new economic development fund drive for the chamber.

“Paul Harvel was unquestionably the right man for the right time in Fort Smith,” said Tim Allen, who became the Fort Smith chamber boss after Harvel. “His ability to energize and build a Chamber membership was important in helping this community grow, as he did for several other communities across the state. His absence will be felt throughout many chamber circles.”

After the Fort Smith chamber job, Harvel’s work included fundraising efforts for the Springdale and Russellville chambers of commerce. Harvel also worked with the Arkadelphia Regional Economic Development Alliance prior to moving to Fort Smith.

In addition to chamber work, Harvel was also engaged in supporting Arkansas’ agriculture sector. He grew up on a farm in Keller, Texas, and his father was a vocational agriculture teacher. During the 1960s, Harvel was a vocational agri teacher at Hope High School, where he grew the FFA program into the state’s largest chapter.

His first job with the Little Rock chamber in the late 1960s was to direct an agriculture development program. As president and CEO of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Arkansas, Harvel in 1987 was instrumental in founding the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame. The Arkansas Farm Bureau would begin managing the program in 2002.

Survivors include wife Barbara Harvel, daughter Michelle Boulden, and grandson Hunter Tuggle.