Community leader, Walter Turnbow, left lasting impact

SPRINGDALE — Walter Turnbow, one of the city’s best known public servants, died Monday at the age of 95, his daughter said.

Turnbow was a long-serving member of the Springdale Industrial Commission and the Springdale Public Facilities Board. He served on the Beaver Water District Board, Springdale Water and Sewer Commission, the Springdale School Board, the Northwest Arkansas Community Care Foundation, the Arkansas State Board of Education and more.

“He was probably the leading mentor to me over my career, whether it was in the bank or community,” said Don Gibson, chief executive officer emeritus of Legacy Bank. Gibson worked with Turnbow, who retired as chairman of the board of First State Bank in 1992.

Turnbow’s daughter Dr. Karen Turnbow of Hoover, Ala., said she learned from him the characteristics she tries to display, including integrity, industriousness and honesty.

“Doing the right thing, even if it’s not easy. Go out of your way to be kind to others,” Karen Turnbow listed.

“I always watched him when he served on the school board, and he would always act with integrity,” she said. “He would vote for what he thought was right, and not just because it was the most popular opinion.”

Turnbow served 21 years on the Water Commission.

Terry Phillips, chief financial officer and director of administration for Springdale Water Utilities, said Turnbow always told the staff and commissioners to be fair with the community in whatever they did, in the services they provided.

Gibson described Turnbow as an anchor and an expert in critical thinking. During board meetings, Turnbow sat quietly while the discussion filled the room, he recalled.

“Then you’d hear him say, ‘Now, on this …’ When we heard that phrase, we knew to expect a proclamation from Walter of exactly what we were going to do. It was the end of the conversation.”

“But Walter was not afraid to make a bold move,” said Rick Pulvirenti, chief operation officer and director of engineering for the water utility.

The water and sewer board was discussing the construction of a 7-million gallon water tank, Pulvirenti shared.

“All the studies had been done, all the projections for population had been made. We had talked about it for a long time. But Walter said, ‘No, we need a bigger one.’ We ended up building a 10-million gallon tank — the largest in the state at the time.

“He was right. He had the foresight to know what the community would need beyond the projections. It was money well-spent for the community.”

Turnbow led the water and sewer commission like a business and set in a good position to serve the community, said Chris Weiser, chairman of the commission, who also grew with Turnbow’s mentoring.

Turnbow insisted on funding depreciation, to prepare for its failure, with the benefits lasting to today, Weiser said. So if something breaks, the utility could repair it without going into debt. Turnbow’s practices also have allowed the utility to build infrastructure to keep up with growth in Northwest Arkansas.

“He’s left quite a legacy in banking and education,” Weiser said. “And in the terms of creating the ability for Springdale, Arkansas, to grow, Walter Turnbow was the man.”

But Turnbow’s contributions to education were the most important to her father, Karen Turnbow said. “He saw education as the key to the future,” she said.

Chris Stecklein, executive director of the Springdale Public Schools Education Foundation, worked with Turnbow 15 years ago. The board of Springdale Memorial Hospital, of which Turnbow was a member, decided to sell the hospital to a health care system and use the proceeds to fund community projects. Stecklein was hired as the director of the Northwest Arkansas Community Care Foundation.

“In anything we’ve done, he’s asked how can we educate the people, how can we give them the opportunity they don’t have,” Stecklein said. “Walter thought education was the key to everything, the key to making people better. He always wanted to give people that opportunity to get better.”

Stacey Ferguson serves as principal of the elementary school named after Turnbow in 2006. She said the school was named in his honor because of his service on the Springdale School Board.

Ferguson said Turnbow would come to the school and read to students. And she remembered a stop at the school on his 90th birthday. When he and his family arrived on a school bus, students released balloons while Turnbow waved, she said.

Stecklein noted Turnbow worked with Springdale High School to help sophomores assimilate to their new surroundings. And he brought the International Baccalaureate program to Springdale, including his elementary school. The program promotes character, global to local thinking and student-driven inquiry, Ferguson explained.

Stecklein listed places in town named in Turnbow’s honor: The board room at Beaver Water District offices, the office building of Springdale Water Utilities, the library at Northwest Technical Institute, the elementary school and, in 1997, a park in downtown Springdale.

“There’s a lot of Walter Turnbow floating around out there among us,” Stecklein said.

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