It was 1927, the yr of the Nice Flood that devastated Arkansas’ cotton-based economic system. The Little Rock Faculty Board determined that yr to start providing junior faculty courses at Little Rock Excessive Faculty on the urging of John Larson, the varsity’s principal. The College of Arkansas had stopped providing extension programs in Little Rock, and Larson felt the state’s largest metropolis ought to have faculty programs out there.

The varsity district offered school rooms at no cost with the availability that tuition would pay for upkeep and instructor salaries. What grew to become Little Rock Junior Faculty moved to the subsequent stage in 1929 when former Gov. George Donaghey and his spouse created a basis to help the varsity. Donaghey, who was born in July 1856 in Oakland, La., had little formal faculty coaching (he spent one yr at UA), however he grew to become one of many foremost schooling advocates in Arkansas historical past.

Donaghey’s household moved to Lapile in Union County in 1858. Donaghey labored on the household farm after which spent three years in Texas, together with 4 months on the Chisholm Path as a cowboy. He moved to Conway in 1880 and spent nearly three a long time within the metropolis.

“He grew to become a carpenter and used this ability as a springboard into constructing and contracting, establishing residences and different buildings in Arkansas and Texas,” the late Cal Ledbetter wrote within the e-book “Arkansas Biography: A Assortment of Notable Lives.”https://www.arkansasonline.com/information/2022/jun/15/the-three-builders/”By 1890, Donaghey was profitable sufficient to grow to be a full-time contractor. … Donaghey was a significant participant in bringing larger schooling establishments to Conway. He contributed $1,500, one-third of his belongings on the time, to a fund began by townspeople to maneuver Hendrix Faculty to Conway in 1890.

“Likewise, Donaghey was on the constructing committee and pledged $5,000 to convey Central Faculty for Girls to Conway. Donaghey was additionally answerable for fundraising to convey Arkansas State Regular Faculty (now the College of Central Arkansas) to Conway. It was the third faculty to find there throughout this era. Donaghey was energetic in native politics. He was a part of the marketing campaign to drive saloons out of Conway as a result of no faculty at the moment would contemplate working in a city that had saloons.”

Donaghey grew to become rich as a railroad contractor within the early 1900s and moved to Little Rock in 1908. That was the yr he first ran for governor, defeating William F. Kirby, a former legal professional common, within the Democratic major and Republican John Worthington within the fall. Donaghey acquired 71 % of the vote that November. He was re-elected in 1910 with 69 %. Donaghey ran for a 3rd time period in 1912 and was defeated by Congressman Joe T. Robinson within the major.

In 1929, Donaghey transferred possession of the Donaghey Constructing and Federal Financial institution & Belief Constructing to LRJC. Valued between $1.5 million and $2 million, it was among the many most beneficiant presents ever in Arkansas.

The varsity’s subsequent main benefactor was Raymond Rebsamen, a Little Rock enterprise chief who was the topic of Saturday’s column.

“In Little Rock, Rebsamen began plenty of small companies, primarily centered on accounting, insurance coverage (Providential Life Insurance coverage, Rebsamen Insurance coverage), actual property (Eagle Realty) and printing (Arkansas Printing & Lithography, Worldwide Graphics, Favourite Verify Printers),” Andrew McClain wrote for the Arkansas State Archives. “These corporations had been organized beneath a holding firm, Rebsamen Firms Inc., which at its peak held greater than 25 companies began by Rebsamen.

“Rebsamen expressed a powerful sense of civic obligation and established the Rebsamen Fund, to which he anticipated his household and varied enterprises to make annual contributions so that they may ‘constantly take part ratably in all worthwhile civic, non secular, academic, fraternal and cultural neighborhood efforts,’ as Rebsamen wrote towards the top of his life.”

In 1947, Rebsamen donated 80 wooded acres alongside a gravel highway often called Hayes Road for what’s now the College of Arkansas at Little Rock campus. LRJC grew to become Little Rock College in 1957 and UALR in 1969.

“Rebsamen owned land on the opposite aspect of Hayes Road as nicely,” McClain wrote. “In 1953, developer Elbert Faucett bought 190 acres from Rebsamen and commenced improvement of Broadmoor, the primary suburban improvement of its form in Little Rock and probably the primary within the nation to be marketed with all properties having central heating and air. Rebsamen’s searching lodge on Belmont Drive was later used for neighborhood affiliation conferences.

“In 1954, Rebsamen donated $30,000 to town for a 27-hole municipal golf course near the Arkansas River. The course nonetheless bears his identify. He bought the Little Rock’s Zoo’s first elephant, Ruth, named after his daughter, in 1937. In 1954, the zoo’s subsequent elephant was named Ellen after Rebsamen’s granddaughter.”

The opposite enterprise chief to have performed a key function in UALR’s improvement was Gus Ottenheimer, who grew to become recognized for manufacturing girls’s clothes and dealing as a land developer. Ottenheimer was a founding father of Related Industries of Arkansas, the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and the Arkansas Financial Council. He headed a activity power within the Fifties to make LRJC a four-year establishment.

Ottenhimer served on the UALR Board of Guests from 1969-72. He by no means married or had kids, leaving belongings to the Ottenheimer Basis.

With UALR struggling mightily lately, it should be requested who the subsequent Donaghey, Rebsamen or Ottenheimer will likely be within the lifetime of this vital Arkansas establishment.

Senior Editor Rex Nelson’s column seems usually within the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He is additionally the writer of the Southern Fried weblog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.