Griffin, Koprovic families donate $200,000 to Marshals Museum

It was a $200,000 Tuesday night reception for the U.S. Marshals Museum.

No, that’s not what the food and beverage cost. It’s the amount the museum was given from two prominent Fort Smith families.

The Richard Griffin family and companies gave $100,000 to the museum, and Chester Koprovic also gave the museum $100,000. The two donations follow a recent $500,000 gift from First Bank Corp. that put the museum over the $5 million mark in their pursuit of a $50 million goal needed to build and operate the U.S. Marshals Museum to be built in downtown Fort Smith.

In January 2007, the U.S. Marshals Service selected Fort Smith as the site for the national museum. The U.S. Marshals Museum board of directors and staff are underway with the $50 million national fundraising effort. The roughly 50,000-square-foot museum will be built in downtown Fort Smith next to the Arkansas River.

“Very few times in our lives are we privileged to do something so historically important,” Koprovic told a crowd gathered at the museum’s temporary offices at 100 Garrison Avenue.

Rick Griffin said the Griffin family is typically private with its donations, but knows “how great of a project this is” and wanted to “lead by example” with the hope of encouraging others to step up.

Robert A. Young III, chairman of the board for Fort Smith-based Arkansas Best Corp. and chairman of the Marshals Museum Foundation Board, said the Koprovic and Griffin families have always been great supporters of the community and positive forces on the regional economy. Young said their donations continue to show the strong local “appreciation for the project.”

The reception also served to more formally introduce Barbara Harvel to the Marshals Museum board and the Museum Foundation Board. Harvel, the wife of Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce President Paul Harvel, was hired in early November as director of development. Former Museum Project Director Sandi Sanders is working to support efforts related to the national and local fundraising campaign.

Part of that fundraising effort includes former President Bill Clinton. Clinton has agreed to serve as the ceremonial host of a private reception for the U.S. Marshals Museum at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion in Little Rock. The invitation-only event will be held Dec. 18, and will seek to attract individuals who may directly or indirectly donate more than $1 million.