February 12, 2010

Benjamin Joseph Altheimer Sr. of Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), shown here with his niece in 1945, was a lawyer and philanthropist known for promoting innovative agricultural research and education. Altheimer became vitally interested in agriculture and helped develop and promote some of the latest technologies in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1942, he created the Ben J. Altheimer Foundation, which provided funds to build a clerical and machine trade school, a technical school building, and a Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts building in the town of Altheimer (Jefferson County).