William Wilson Campbell (1889–1970)

William Wilson Campbell of Forrest City (St. Francis County) was a banker known nationally for his expertise in rural and agricultural lending. Upon Campbell’s death in 1970, United States Representative Bill Alexander said on the House floor that “Mr. Will,” as he was known, was “one of the most influential and one of the most beloved citizens of Arkansas.”

William W. Campbell was born on Crowley’s Ridge in St. Francis County on February 9, 1889. He was the oldest of three children of Silas Campbell and Jessie Griggs Campbell, farmers whose families were early settlers in the region. Campbell graduated from Forrest City High School and attended the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County), transferring to Eastman Business College in New York to complete his degree. He started his career at First National Bank of Eastern Arkansas as a clerk in 1909.

In 1916, Campbell married Victoria Mann of Marianna (Lee County). The Campbells had a son, William Mann, in 1917, and a daughter, Anna Pearl, in 1920. They became members of Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church, where Campbell later served as an elder. Architect Estes Mann designed their Prairie-style house at 305 N. Forrest Street in Forrest City; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

During World War I, he served as Liberty Loan Committee Chair for St. Francis County. Campbell was promoted from assistant cashier to cashier, and then made president of First National Bank of Eastern Arkansas in 1923 at age thirty-four. In 1928, his peers elected him president of the Arkansas Bankers Association.

During the Great Depression, First National Bank joined the National Banking System and remained healthy even as many other financial institutions closed. During World War II, Campbell served the state as chair of the War Finance Committee and as a member of the Food-for-Freedom Committee. His son served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater, while his daughter left college to fill a position at the bank left vacant due to the war.

During his tenure on the American Bankers Association Agricultural Commission, he presented a ten-point plan for improving cooperation between banks and farmers. It included a reforestation program and suggested procedures for agricultural lending. He was a member of the Federal Reserve Advisory Council and spent six years on the board of the Memphis Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Missouri. Campbell also served on the Advisory Committee of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Government Lending Committee of the Hoover Commission, convened by President Harry Truman to recommend changes to the federal government.

In 1947, a Reader’s Digest article profiled Campbell as a “Good-Neighbor Banker,” drawing national attention to his methods of conducting business. For example, the First National Bank of Eastern Arkansas had extended hours of operation and Campbell made loans to residents in the region regardless of race or substantial collateral. He studied methods for soil conservation, irrigation, crop diversification, and cover cropping, and he extended loans to farmers to implement the new ideas. Fortune profiled him in November 1948, noting that he had never foreclosed on a loan in almost forty years as a country banker.

After thirty-one years, Campbell stepped down as president of First National Bank of Eastern Arkansas in 1954. His son William Mann Campbell succeeded him, while he moved to a position as chair of the board of directors. From 1955 to 1965, he served as vice chair of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission (now the Arkansas Economic Development Commission), which worked to attract business and diversify the state economy. During this period, the state added factories and jobs, particularly in areas like St. Francis County. Campbell served the state in multiple additional capacities, serving on the boards of directors for Arkansas Power and Light, the Arkansas Economic Council, and the Arkansas Tuberculosis Sanatorium. Significantly, he volunteered as Arkansas’s Savings Bond Chair from 1941 until his death in 1970, becoming the longest-serving state head in the country.

Campbell died in Memphis, Tennessee, on May 28, 1970.

For additional information:
Detzer, Karl. “Good-Neighbor Banker.” Reader’s Digest (November 1947): 127–129.

“Noted Banker Dies at Age 81.” Arkansas Gazette, May 29, 1970, pp. 1A, 2A.

Representative Bill Alexander, 91st Congress, 1st session, Congressional Record vol. 116, H18224, June 3, 1970.

“William W. Campbell.” Department of the Treasury. RG 56, Series 405-J Savings Bond Division Records Relating to State Chairmen, Box 2.

Kristin Dutcher Mann
University of Arkansas at Little Rock