Joe Yates, a groundbreaking state senator who was once one of only three Republicans in that chamber, died Friday. He was 78.
"Joe Yates was a stalwart of the very young Arkansas Republican Party and was really the foundation of the party's growth in Benton County and, later, statewide," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Monday. "As a public servant, Joe was always keeping an eye on the taxpayers' dollars and served as a mentor for many that would follow in his footsteps. He was a friend, and we will miss him greatly."
Service information
The family of former state Sen. Joe Yates will receive visitors from 12:30 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. with a 1:30 p.m. funeral service on Wednesday at Fellowship Bible Church, 1051 W. Pleasant Grove Road in Rogers.
Source: Staff report
A native of western Benton County, Yates was a U.S. Air Force veteran. He earned a master's degree in geography at the University of Arkansas and completed many of the courses for a doctorate at the University of Oklahoma.
After teaching at the State College of Arkansas in Conway, which is now the University of Central Arkansas, he joined the now-defunct Arkansas Department of Planning. While at the state agency, he was a leading contributor to the Atlas of Arkansas, an award-winning compilation of information about the state's people, economics and development.
Yates worked for then-Gov. David Pryor, a Democrat, in the mid-1970s as the head of the Department of Building Services, which oversees state-owned buildings and facility leases. By 1976, he returned to Benton County where he was involved in a number of real-estate-related pursuits. He was appointed to fill an unexpired term of a departing county assessor in 1977 before running for and winning election to the county tax collector position in 1980.
Yates' debut in elective state politics came in 1982. Popular Democratic Sen. Kim Hendren of Gravette was taken off the ballot by the state's Democratic Party after he contributed to the political campaigns of his Republican brothers-in-law, Asa and Tim Hutchinson. Tim Hutchinson is now a former U.S. Senator.
Yates ran as a Republican and won the seat.
Hendren is now a Republican state representative from Gravette. He said Monday that Yates' influence is still present in the capitol.
"Joe Yates-isms are still floating around" about the need to watch the public's money, Hendren said. "People forget the amount of influence he had serving on several state boards, too."
Yates' contributions went far beyond his years in elective office, Hendren said. The two were political opponents, "but our races and politics back then used to be fun. It could be a little biting, but it was never mean."
Yates was a vice president of the Arkansas Poultry Federation while in the senate and later served as president of that group. During his time in the senate, he served as chairman of the powerful Joint Legislative Audit Committee. He was also an executive in Cooper Communities, the developer of Bella Vista.
After retiring from the senate in 1994, Yates joined the University of Arkansas as associate dean in the College of Agriculture. There he managed the construction of the Center for Excellence in Poultry Science. Later he served as a commissioner for the Arkansas Workers Compensation Commission.
Yates married the former Anita Ratcliff and the couple had four children. After his wife's death in 2001, Yates married Judy Sugg Harrison, a classmate of his and Anita's, in 2003.
NW News on 02/07/2017