H.G. "Jack" Frost Jr., a prominent accountant and businessman who spent much of his retirement in federal prison, died Friday at age 80, according to the obituary posted by Ruebel Funeral Home of Little Rock.
A native of Little Rock, Frost attended Hendrix College at Conway for one year and graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1952. After two years in the U.S. Air Force, joined the staff of Russell Brown & Co. accounting firm. In 1974, he formed Jack Frost & Co., the accounting firm later known as Moore Stephens Frost and now Frost PLLC, and was its managing partner until 1980.
He left the firm to work exclusively for Harvey Jones, who died nine years after selling Jones Truck Line in 1980, and for Jones’ widow, Bernice and the business and charitable entities the Joneses created with their multimillion-dollar fortune.
In 1997, Frost was fired by Bernice Jones, and the Jones Charitable Trust filed a civil lawsuit accusing Frost of defrauding the trust of more than $1.6 million by forging Jones’ signature on checks, destroying documents and misleading auditors.
The civil suit was settled, but in 1999 Frost was indicted by a federal grand jury on 70 felony counts. One was eventually dropped by prosecutors, but a jury convicted him on the remaining 69 counts in December 2001. He was sentenced to 70 months in prison, a stretch reduced by "good time," and he was released in May 2007 at age 75.
Frost, according to his obituary, is survived by two daughters, Becky Good and Tricia Chaffin, five grandchildren and his fiancée, Elizabeth "Betsy" Gray.
A visitation will be held at Ruebel Funeral Home, 6313 W. Markham St., from 4 to 6 p.m. on Monday, and a memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, 4823 Woodlawn Ave. in Little Rock. A private burial will be held at Roselawn Memorial Park.
Memorials may be made to Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, Hendrix College or the Arkansas Art Center.
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