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Twenty years ago, Arkansas Business named our on-site archive after George Waldon to recognize a remarkable 20 years of service to the company.
It remains the only space in our downtown Little Rock headquarters named after an individual.
If we were that grateful in 2005, imagine how grateful we are that George stuck around for two more decades, bringing expertise and a touch to our coverage of banking and real estate that was uniquely George.
This is the first issue in 40 years that doesn’t have George’s name on the masthead next to this column. But I assure you his fingerprints are on it.
He retired as one of our senior editors at the end of 2025 just a month past his 40th anniversary at the company.
It is rare in any industry these days for an individual to stay with the same organization for four decades; it is even more rare in the news business.
And while George was the longest tenured, he isn’t the only one on our staff who has remained over the decades. I think that’s a credit to the culture that George and many others have created at Arkansas Business Publishing Group. It is a wonderful place to work.
I also think it is a credit to you. We have such smart, engaged readers who make it a pleasure to produce this paper each week.
We have this relationship with our readers because of the reputation and standard that have been created and upheld at Arkansas Business for 42 years. George deserves as much credit for that as anyone.
George’s subject-matter expertise in banking and real estate make him stand out, but I also learned quickly that he has one of the best internal BS detectors I’ve seen in this business.
He also possesses such a strong moral compass, and he refused to let people who had done wrong off the hook. I’ve taken calls from investors who were very grateful George’s reporting saved them from going into business with people they shouldn’t have.
I also suspect he put off plans to scale back from full-time work as we navigated several transitions, including the arrival of a new editor two years ago. (Thanks George!)
I’m happy he can now enjoy retirement, but I know we and our readers will miss his work. We are fortunate to have hired Griffin Coop last year to begin learning from George and take over his beats and the weekly Real Deals column. Griffin has already done great work, and while there won’t be drastic changes, I’m sure Griffin will bring his own touch to Real Deals and our coverage of banking and real estate. Don’t hesitate to reach out to him at gcoop@abpg.com with tips, story ideas and feedback.
He has big shoes to fill.
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