Five Arkansans will be inducted into the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame in a ceremony on March 6, the Arkansas Farm Bureau has announced.
The five are James R. “Jim” Baker of Conway, James Bibler of Russellville, the late Billie R. Nix of Ash Flat, the late Bruce Oakley of El Paso and John Ed Regenold of Blytheville.
“To consider the accomplishments of these gentlemen who have been selected to the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame is to see the outcome of hard work, foresight and ingenuity,” Butch Calhoun of Des Arc, chairman of the state’s Agriculture Hall of Fame and former Arkansas secretary of agriculture, said in a Farm Bureau press release.
“The impact they made on their communities, on agriculture in our state, and the lives of so many of those associated with their successes is incalculable,” Calhoun said.
The men will be honored at the 27th annual induction luncheon to be held at 11:30 a.m. on March 6 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Little Rock. Luncheon tickets are $35 and are available by calling (501) 228-1470 or emailing AgHallofFame@ARFB.com.
The honorees and their backgrounds:
• James R. “Jim” Baker of Conway was a longtime manager of the Lewis Livestock Co., past chairman of the Arkansas Livestock & Poultry Commission and a former administrator of the Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Baker was elected Faulkner County judge last year. Progressive Farmer magazine named him Man of the Year in Arkansas Agriculture in 1999.
• James Bibler of Russellville is the former owner of Bibler Brothers Lumber Co. and past chairman of the Arkansas Forestry Commission, former president of the Arkansas Forestry Association and past president of the Southern Forest Products Association. He was named Man of the Year in 1991 by Timber Processing magazine.
• Billie R. Nix of Ash Flat was owner and operator of the Ash Flat Livestock Auction for 50 years, until his death in 2010. He was past president of the Sharp County Fair, an organizer of the North Central Arkansas District Fair, past vice president of the Arkansas Livestock Marketing Association and a veteran officer with the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association.
• Bruce Oakley, who died in 2006, founded Bruce Oakley Inc. of North Little Rock, a commodity trading, distribution and transportation company with $1.3 billion in sales in 2014. His family operates the company he founded, a company that deals in trucking, barge traffic, fertilizer, river ports, grain merchandising, bagging services, river towing and fuel distribution.
• John Ed Regenold of Blytheville is chairman of the Armorel Planting Co. He manages about 10,000 acres of Mississippi County farmland and recently completed a 10-year term on the Arkansas State Highway Commission, serving two years as chairman. Regenold also served on the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and in 1968 was named the outstanding farmer for Mississippi County.
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