[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 104 (Wednesday, July 27, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9116-S9117]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO JACKSON T. ``JACK'' STEPHENS

  Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, I also now go to a sadder note and rise 
to pay tribute to a fallen pillar of the Arkansas business and 
philanthropy community, Mr. Jack Stephens. Jack passed away quietly at 
his home on Saturday, July 23, after a period of illness. He has been 
remarked to have been one of the most incredible businessmen in his 
lifetime. We have truly lost a visionary businessman who invested in 
hundreds of Arkansas companies, many of which became leaders in their 
industry.
  He also became one of my home State's most active philanthropists, 
never forgetting his humble roots and the value of rural life. Jackson 
T. Stephens was born during the Roaring Twenties and was raised during 
the Great Depression on a farm in south central Arkansas. He picked 
cotton and worked a mule on the farm before taking jobs in nearby Hope, 
AR, during his teens.
  The Depression helped to shape a generation of Americans who valued 
every penny and deeply respected the opportunities that freedom brings, 
the opportunity to earn a living and to give back. Those lessons were 
not lost on Jack Stephens. His parents A. J. and Ethel taught him the 
values of self-reliance, diligence, integrity, and hard work. His 
father once told Jack, ``Success is not a destiny to be reached but the 
quality of the journey we make.''
  After attending public schools in Prattsville, AR, and graduating 
high school from Columbia Military Academy in Columbia, TN, Jack 
Stephens became a 1947 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. For the rest 
of his life, he remained close to many of his Naval Academy buddies, 
particularly ADM William Crowe, Ambassador Vernon Weaver, and President 
Jimmy Carter. He never forgot the important value of that education at 
a service academy and, more importantly, his service to this great 
Nation.
  After finishing up at the Naval Academy, Jack joined his brother Witt 
Stephens at his financial company, Stephens, Inc. The two of them built 
one of the country's most premier investment banking firms, the largest 
off Wall Street.

[[Page S9117]]

  In recent years, Jack has been recognized for his philanthropy. He 
once told a reporter there are only two pleasures associated with 
money: making it and giving it away.
  For over 20 years, Jack has been the principal benefactor for the 
Delta Project, a program designed to assist and educate underprivileged 
children in Arkansas's delta. He also supported the City Educational 
Trust Fund. For 20 years, the trust fund has provided scholarships for 
students and incentive awards for innovative teachers.
  Jack also gave $48 million to the University of Arkansas for Medical 
Sciences. The money was used to build, equip, and support the Jackson 
T. Stephens Spine and Neuroscience Institute.
  In 1997, he gave $5 million to support First Tee, a program designed 
to allow underprivileged children to learn about and play the game of 
golf. He viewed First Tee as a teaching tool for children. He 
understood that the lessons of patience, respect, and following the 
rules the game of golf teaches could be used in any area of a child's 
life and, more important, provided them the life skills they needed to 
be a success in the future.
  He also served from 1991 to 1998 as the fourth chairman of the 
Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Master's Golf Tournament. Jack 
also gave about $20 million to the University of Arkansas at Little 
Rock for a special events center that will be used for basketball.
  In closing, I want to say a word about the character of Jack Stephens 
and the men and women of his generation. Jack came from a time when 
Arkansans believed in the spirit of Arkansas. We in Arkansas believe in 
ourselves. We believe in our family and our family of Arkansas people. 
We believe in our dreams and the things we can accomplish when we work 
hard and we reach out to one another.
  Men such as J. B. Hunt, Sam Walton, John Tyson, Witt Stephens, and 
Jack Stephens believed in the values they were taught in Arkansas and 
knew that the best place to build a business was right there in their 
own backyard.
  All of these men along with Jack Stephens, nurtured and invested in 
the businesses and the people of their great State of Arkansas, knowing 
full well that Arkansas, Arkansas's hard work, its ethics, its values, 
could be marketed all across the globe.
  In the 1980s, Jack Stephens was one of the first to venture and look 
toward places in the East where investments could be made and 
relationships built for future of the global economy in the 21st 
century. They set a high standard for all of Arkansas to follow. Many 
of us look to the image of Jack Stephens to know of the success that 
can happen in Arkansas.
  My thoughts and prayers go to the family and friends of Jack Stephens 
this week, as we celebrate his wonderful life and cherish the moments 
that were spent with him. The people of Arkansas can all be proud of 
Jack Stephens and the life he lived. He contributed mightily to the 
well-being of our State and to its people, all because he never forgot 
where he came from. I am sure the entire Senate will join with me as I 
honor the well-lived life of Jackson T. ``Jack'' Stephens.

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