ROGERS — Free enterprise took center stage Friday at the John Q. Hammons Convention Center as business representatives from across the region gathered to honor the legacies of four pillars of the region’s economy: J.B. and Johnelle Hunt of the trucking industry; Don Tyson of Tyson Foods Inc.; and Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

The event was Economics Arkansas’ 50th anniversary Excellence in Free Enterprise awards luncheon. Economics Arkansas is a nonprofit educational organization founded in 1962 to promote economic literacy.

The luncheon’s keynote speaker, American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks, said the institute’s mission is simple: expanding liberty and free enterprise, which Brooks said gives most people the best quality of life.

“Everybody knows that free enterprise makes us rich,” he said, but few know how to make a moral argument in support of it.

“Entrepreneurs have the highest level of happiness -they’re doing what they want to do - but it’s not measured by financial success,” Brooks said.

Free enterprise, he said, has helped decrease the worst levels of U.S. poverty through companies such as Wal-Mart of Bentonville with its focus on low prices and low costs.

In the case of J.B. Hunt, Brooks said, that while the late J.B. was “the dreamer,” fortunately, his wife Johnelle was at the table and “kept the company moving in the right direction.”

Don Soderquist, founding executive of The Soderquist Center and a former top-level Wal-Mart executive, said Walton was most proud of the number of hourly workers who became leaders and managers.

“The focus was on people, not process and things,” he said.

In a video presentation, Walton was credited with deploying computers in the 1960s.

“He kept prices lower than competitors, it’s just that simple,” Soderquist said.

Jim Walton, Sam’s youngest son and chairman of Arvest Bank, and Alice Walton, Sam’s daughter and the founder of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, attended the event.

A video tribute to Don Tyson credited him with establishing the first fully integrated poultry operation, giving the company control of all phases of production from hatching through the processing plant.

Tyson Foods grew to become the world’s largest chicken producer.

“Dad would credit the 115,000 people who make up the company,” said his son, John.

Business, Pages 27 on 11/03/2012