First ag secretary, CEO of Riceland
Richard “Dick” Bell, the state’s first agriculture secretary and a past president and chief executive officer of Riceland Foods Inc., died Friday in Stuttgart at age 81, a friend of Bell’s said.
After serving as secretary of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture for seven years, Bell stepped down in 2012 because of health reasons. Butch Calhoun, who succeeded Bell, said Bell had been ill since he left the position.
The Arkansas Agriculture Board appointed Bell as secretary in 2005 after the state Legislature merged several state agencies to create the Agriculture Department. ThenGov. Mike Huckabee confirmed the appointment.
In a statement emailed to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Huckabee said Bell was an “even-tempered, hard working, conscientious, and effective public servant.”
“His vast knowledge of the entire agricultural landscape and the respect that he earned from everyone in the agri world made him the best choice to launch the state’s Agriculture Department when it was created,” Huckabee said in the statement. “It took a lot of persuasion to get Dick to agree to accepting the post, but there was no one I could think of better suited for the job and Dick proved that to be true.”
Calhoun said Bell was the “perfect fit” as the first secretary of the department.
“He was brilliant, very knowledgeable” Calhoun said. “He just did a great job with it and getting it off the ground.”
According to the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame, into which Bell was inducted in 2004, Bell was a Clinton, Ill., native, and he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois.
He worked on the agricultural staffs of American embassies in Canada, Belgium and Ireland from 1961 to 1968, and he spent a total of 12 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. His last position with the USDA was as assistant secretary for international affairs and commodity programs.
Bell joined Riceland — a farmer-owned cooperative based in Stuttgart and the world’s largest miller and marketer of rice — in 1977 as the executive vice president and chief operating officer. He was with the company for 27 years.
He ended his career as secretary of the state Department of Agriculture and retired to Stuttgart, Calhoun said.
Calhoun, who has farmed soybeans for Riceland for decades, said he met Bell when Bell first joined the company.
“He was kind of a legend in the rice industry,” Calhoun said. “He was remarkable. He was one of those guys that was all work.” Information for this article was contributed by Glen Chase of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.