CADC executive director to retire after 46 years
CADC executive director to retire after 46 years
Doretta Cogburn told her husband, Larry, that if he was to retire, he could not just come home and sit. He has to actually get out and do something, but for Larry, he’s not really sure what he wants to do yet.
“I have never been retired, so I don’t know,” Larry Cogburn said. “It is going to be a new experience.”
Cogburn will officially retire from the Central Arkansas Development Council later this month after serving 46 years. He has been the executive director since 2003, when he replaced Charles Cunningham.
CADC is a private nonprofit organization that “provides a hand up, promoting self-help in our neighborhoods and for our families,” according to CADC’s website, www.cadc.com.
“We currently have 500 employees, and in my role, I supervise the program managers to see the mission we have set up accomplished …,” Cogburn said. “I have enjoyed helping people and the variety of things that we have accomplished, knowing we have made a difference in people’s lives.”
Cogburn said that when he first started working for CADC, the funding for the agency was about $350,000, and it operated in just four counties. It has since expanded to about $35 million a year in 19 counties.
“We keep the people in mind with what we are trying to do and assist people in their jobs,” Cogburn said. “We have added some programs and changed the scope of others.
“It has been a combination of things.”
The base of operations is in Benton, but the agency has offices in all 19 counties. Lavel Neal, who serves as operations manager for CADC and has known Cogburn for more than 15 years, said the nonprofit has really grown under his leadership.
“He’s a very dedicated and passionate person,” Neal said. “He wants to make sure we are the best that we can be and do everything we can to help our community that we serve. …
“… He has been instrumental in the success that CADC has had. He is willing to go the extra mile with everything that needs to be done. He is definitely going to be missed, but I’m sure we are going to be OK.”
Randy Morris was hired as the new executive director for CADC, and he started in the position June 11. There was some overlap, but Neal said it was to allow Cogburn to guide and mentor Morris a little bit.
Neal said that in the past year alone, CADC picked up an additional seven counties. She said the group applied and received funding for the area, and a lot of that was due to Cogburn.
“He expected you to give it your all, and he was very fair,” Neal said. “He worked with you and was compassionate, as he was for the work, as long as you did the work that you needed to do to help the people.”
Evelyn Reed, who works as a program manager at CADC, has known Cogburn for 38 years. She described Cogburn as a generous person and someone who is “willing to go the extra mile to help people.”
When she was first hired on, she worked immediately under Cogburn in the finance division. She said his financial mindset has been beneficial in the growth of CADC.
“He doesn’t ever want to overextend the agency,” Reed said. “He wants to maintain and keep the finances in good order, and we have definitely benefited from that.
“He has always concerned himself with making sure that our finances are in good standing. That is one of his main pet peeves — is making sure the agency is financially sound.”
Cogburn was born and raised in Lono, just south of Malvern. He graduated from Malvern High School in 1965 and from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia in 1972. He earned the job at CADC after seeing an advertisement in the local paper searching for a financial person. Never did Cogburn imagine he would still be at CADC almost nearly five decades later.
“When Nixon was president, all the funding for programs such as ours was frozen,” Cogburn said. “We were more or less ordered to pack it up because we didn’t have any funding.
“But it didn’t happen the way [Nixon] had planned, and we have grown since. I certainly did not expect to be here for 46 years.”
Beverly Palmer, who has worked with Cogburn for 41 years, was emotional when talking about him.
“He is very dedicated, and he is very concerned for others,” Palmer said. “He shows that concern in every decision that he makes. He has had a long career with CADC, and I think he has done very remarkable and great things for CADC.”
Palmer serves as a program manager for CADC, and she said Cogburn’s success as executive director comes from long hours and very hard work.
“He has respect for other people, and he is always quick to give others credit,” Palmer said. “He is not afraid of change and voicing his opinion. He has had a vision for CADC, and he has stuck to that vision.”
Palmer said Cogburn is a man of integrity and is “quick to acknowledge God as his leader.”
“It is what has inspired some of us to work here as long as we have,” Palmer said. “[Cogburn] has made it a good workplace. … He will definitely be missed.”
Cogburn is recovering from a surgery he had in late June. He said the timing is purely coincidental and is not the reason he is retiring.
“I expect it is going to take a while to heal,” Cogburn said.
He said that once he heals, he may consider spending time volunteering in the community.
“One of his famous sayings after meetings is, ‘Go forth and do good,’” Neal said. “‘Do not accept no as your first answer. Be willing to argue and look for a way to do it, not a way to not do it.’”
Cogburn and his wife married in 1973 after meeting through his sister.
“They taught school together; she introduced us,” Cogburn said.
Doretta Cogburn taught for more than 40 years, the majority of it for the Poyen School District. She has been retired for about eight years.
“I do not have a lot of hobbies, but I know that I want to travel,” Larry Cogburn said. “There are parts of the country that I want to see, including Niagara Falls and Mount Rushmore and other places north.
“I have been west numerous times. I want to go north, so I am going to try to do that.”
He said one thing he wants to do after he retires is finish some of the projects he has started around the house. He said he likes to work “on old stuff and get it to run.”
“I have a lot of old lawn mowers — SEARS riding tractors — several of those, and I want to fix one up for each of my grandkids,” Cogburn said. “They may not need it, but I like the design of the old tractors.
I have enjoyed helping people and the variety of things that we have accomplished, knowing we have made a difference in people’s lives.” Larry Cogburn RETIRING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRAL ARKANSAS DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
“I like to go and tinker on things like that.”
Reed said not having Cogburn at CADC is going to be kind of strange.
“I think he is going to take this opportunity to travel and spend more time with his grandkids,” Reed said. “By working and being in the office, he doesn’t always have that time with his family that he would have liked.
“I don’t think he is going to be bored. I think he is going to enjoy family life.”
Cogburn said he also wants to try to fish more often. He hasn’t gotten to go as much as he would like because any time he could go, he was either too hot, too cold, or he was busy with his work. But he bought each of his grandkids fishing rods for Christmas, so “I want to take them out fishing just as soon as the weather changes,” he said.
“There are a lot of things that I want to do,” Cogburn said. “I’ve never been retired before, so to be able to go and do will be a change, instead of the responsibility of getting up to go to work and going there.
“I have two kids, and I want to work on spending more time with them. I am looking forward to that idea.”