Richard W. Davies (1950–)

Richard W. Davies and two generations of his forebears developed the Arkansas system of state parks from scratch to the fifty-three parks and historic sites by 2026. The century-long cultivation and protection of Arkansas’s natural resources by the Davies family—mainly Richard, his father Ladd, and his grandfather Samuel—largely defined the century-long environmental movement in Arkansas to curb pollution of the state’s streams, lakes, air, and countryside. From 1976 to his retirement in 2015, Richard Davies ran the state parks system for seven Arkansas governors—four Democrats and three Republicans. A key part of that work, although never publicized, was drafting and working to pass tax legislation that promoted tourism and funded parks, wildlife management, historic preservation, and beautification programs.

Richard Walter Davies was born on May 30, 1950, in Little Rock (Pulaski County), the third son of Samuel Ladd Davies and Janice Marie Goodbar Davies. His father, like his grandfather, was a civil engineer who devoted his career to environmental causes. His mother was an English teacher at Hall and Parkview high schools in Little Rock whose oral book reviews and literary discussions were a regular part of Little Rock’s social life for thirty years.

Davies graduated in 1968 from Central High School and enrolled at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County), where he received a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1972. After graduation, he married a UA classmate, Susan Elizabeth (Betsy) Blodgett of North Little Rock (Pulaski County). They settled in North Little Rock and had two daughters. After a stint in the U.S. Army—like his father Ladd, he would retire from the Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel—Davies went to work at the government agency that ran the state parks under Governor Dale Bumpers and spent the rest of his career there, a period of forty-three years.

While Davies grew up in Little Rock, Petit Jean Mountain was a second home for virtually the whole extended Davies family for four generations. His grandfather Samuel, a civil engineer, developed the state’s first park there in the 1920s and 1930s with the help of veterans of World War I and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which built trails and roads along the mountain crest during the Great Depression. He built the bridge across the Arkansas River at Morrilton (Conway County) and the roads atop the mountain and many of the facilities there. He became Arkansas’s first state parks director. Davies’s father and grandfather formed a construction business before his father began his career in state government. Several Davies family members eventually built homes around the park.

Davies’s first job after college and military service was with the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism in 1973. Governor Bumpers hired William Henderson to head the department, one of thirteen departments in the reorganized state government. Henderson, a UA journalism graduate like Davies, hired Davies as his administrative assistant. Bumpers had campaigned on the promise to expand the state’s parks, saying that the situation was a disgrace for a state with so much natural beauty and so many areas that lacked parks and recreational areas. In his four years as governor, the state increased income taxes and other levies, spent more on parks than in all its history, and created nine new parks. Davies shortly became director of parks and eventually director of the whole department of parks and tourism.

Funding was a perpetual crisis, and Davies found legislative sponsors and worked to pass tax legislation for parks, tourism, and beautification, most notably the 1996 constitutional amendment (Amendment 75) that raised the state sales tax by one-eighth of one percent. The new governor, Mike Huckabee, a fisherman, volunteered to campaign for the tax at a special election. Davies, along with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission director Steve Wilson, guided him up and down the Arkansas River in Huckabee’s bass boat to campaign for the tax. Voters approved it 405,210 to 396,932. Before that, in the 1980s, Davies twice persuaded several legislative leaders, notably Senator Nick Wilson of Pocahontas (Randolph County) and Representative Joseph K. Mahony of El Dorado (Union County), to increase the state real estate transfer tax and dedicate the funds to state parks and historic preservation programs.

Davies retired as parks and tourism director in December 2015. He received numerous recognitions for his work. Among them, the University of Arkansas awarded him an honorary doctorate of arts and humane letters, the National Association of State Parks Directors made him state parks director of the year, and he was inducted into the halls of fame of a number of groups, including the Arkansas Hospitality Association, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and the Lemke Journalism Alumni Society at the University of Arkansas. President Bill Clinton appointed him vice chair of the National Recreation Lakes Study Commission, to make recommendations to Congress and the president on the future of federal reservoirs.

For additional information:
Brock, Roby. “The Long and Winding Career of Richard Davies.” Talk Business & Politics, March 8, 2015. https://talkbusiness.net/2015/03/the-long-and-winding-career-of-richard-davies/ (accessed June 10, 2026).

“Richard Davies, Alumnus and Public Servant, to Receive Honorary Degree.” University of Arkansas News, April 18, 2016. https://news.uark.edu/articles/34313/richard-davies-alumnus-and-public-servant-to-receive-honorary-degree (accessed June 10, 2026).

Showers, Dave. “Richard Davies Wows Crowd at Chamber Banquet.” El Dorado, Arkansas, April 14, 2014. https://www.goeldorado.com/news/richard-davies-wows-crowd-at-chamber-banquet/ (accessed June 10, 2026).

“To the Limit: Richard W. Davies of Arkansas Dept. of Parks & Tourism.” Greenhead: The Arkansas Duck Hunting Magazine, August 28, 2012. https://greenhead.net/to-the-limit-richard-w-davies-of-arkansas-dept-of-parks-tourism/ (accessed June 10, 2026).

Ernest Dumas
Little Rock, Arkansas