NOTABLE ARKANSANS
He was born in 1896, in Zanesville, Ohio, but graduated from high school in Cambridge, Ohio, in 1915. After receiving a bachelor of science degree from Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, in 1918, he enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, doing graduate work in engineering. He was commissioned in the U.S. Naval Reserve as an aviator in 1919, and moved to Houston, hoping to make a career in the oil business.
When oil was discovered in Smackover (Union County) in 1921, he moved to Camden in Ouachita County, becoming an investment broker in oil and real estate, actively engaging in Camden civic affairs. He soon fell in love with Gressie Umsted, daughter of oil baron, Sidney Umsted; they married in 1926.
His hometown of Zanesville, because of its rich clay deposits, was a center for pottery manufacturing, so when he recognized the quality of the clay in the nearby towns of Lester and Chidester, he persuaded local businessmen in 1926 to donate land for a new pottery business — The Camden Art Tile & Pottery Co. The next year, he would change the name of the business to Camark Pottery, after the city and state.
He recruited potters from Ohio and, by the early 1930s, Camark pottery was being shipped to outlets in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. The product went through several design phases and, in 1939, started its line of hand-painted pottery. The company’s success would continue through the Great Depression. During World War II, it would employ more than 100 people, producing pottery recognized and sought after nationwide. The public couldn’t get enough of its novelty ware such as salt and pepper shakers and climbing cats. While overseeing the pottery company, he continued working in oil and real estate.
He also had other interests: he played piano and organ, produced plays and invented a patented fishing lure he called a fish caller because it made a sound that attracted fish. He owned a stable of thoroughbred horses and served on the Arkansas Racing Commission for eight years.
He died in 1958 and, within a few years, Camark Pottery would close. The pottery remains extremely popular today among collectors. A large municipal Camden park bears his name.