Denver Reed Peacock
Denver Peacock’s small-town upbringing informs his community service. He knows that attention to detail and being kind to everyone is the way to live.
If a picture tells a thousand words, then the walls of Denver Peacock’s River Market office speak several volumes. The vast collection of photos, media credentials and souvenirs, which he says is but a fraction of what he has actually accumulated, spans decades of a remarkably diverse professional life.
Many of the photos bear the scrawls of presidents, royalty, international leaders and global entertainers imparting personalized messages of greeting, well-wishes or thanks. The assemblage is something even Peacock looks upon with an air of faint disbelief, had he not been there to experience all this firsthand.
“My colleagues like to joke that I use those opportunities as teachable moments,” he says. “I’m constantly learning. I’m a ‘forever student’; I love to read, I love to travel. It’s always been a part of who I am.”
If nothing else, the mementos are a good catalyst for what Peacock does best — tell stories. His career has been a study in communication strategy, be it as conduit between the powerful and the press or whipping up local civic organizations to support a community initiative. Words are Peacock’s most effective tools, and he uses them as well as any master craftsman ever did.
“I think it’s his attention to detail and desire for things to be perfect that make him good at what he does,” says Nelson Peacock, president and chief executive officer of the Northwest Arkansas Council and Denver’s older brother. “We often say that he treats a local event in Jacksonville, Arkansas, the same way he would a presidential visit. That’s really, I think, what has carried him over into success. The way he treats his clients is really top-shelf.”
Denver Peacock grew up in McCrory, a dot on the eastern haunch of the Arkansas Delta. For someone who’d become a bonafide world traveler by his 20s, that small place made a surprisingly big impression on him.
“You can take the boy out of the Delta but you can’t take the Delta out of the boy,” he says. “The community that we had in McCrory was really special. We were pretty well ingrained in the culture of our small town.”
The household was one of constant activity as Peacock’s late parents demonstrated a love for place that seeped into their two sons.
“Dad was really involved with public service and community service,” he says. “Mom always had a soft heart for the farmer; there wasn’t a time in my life that we were driving between Little Rock and McCrory when we didn’t stop and she’d buy $10 worth of fruits and vegetables from those impromptu stands set up along the highway.
“They both ingrained in me and my brother a really deep-rooted commitment to giving back and serving those around you. They both were pretty special people.”
Joe and Ann Peacock provided a solidly middle-class life for their boys. Both stressed hard work and helping one’s neighbor, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t time to have a little enjoyment along the way.
“I was one of the kids who got all the fun toys,” Peacock says. “We had a basketball goal in our backyard and all the kids would come over. My dad installed lights, and we used to play basketball all hours of the night, much to my mom’s chagrin. Our house was a fun house.
“My parents were really hospitable people. We always had people over, our friends. Everybody felt welcome in our home.”
TO HELP EVERYBODY
Denver got an up-close view of servant leadership of a different sort when his father, the city attorney, was elected to the Arkansas Legislature in 1974 and served for eight years.
“He had little political cards with me and my brother on there. My dad was an early forerunner of that style of campaigning,” Peacock says. “I always laugh when I see that now; [my parents] were pimping us out even back in the day, these cute little kids on these political cards.”
Peacock remembers his father’s time in office as a gentler era of Arkansas politics. While not yet old enough to translate his father’s beliefs into a formal ideology of
his own, he nonetheless knew what his father and his colleagues were doing helped people. And that planted a philosophy that would take root and flower later in his own life.
“I guess the right term might be it was this new movement of the modern Democratic party, of Bumpers, Pryor, Clinton,” Peacock says. “It was an attitude of not restricting the ability of people to have access to all the things that they’re entitled to as citizens of our nation. It was the era of being business-friendly and striving to have a strong economy, but also making sure we don’t leave anybody behind.
“[Dad] went along those same lines, being part of that whole movement of figuring out a way to actually incorporate and include everybody.”
LOVE OF TRAVEL
Another defining influence in Peacock’s early life was his church youth group, in part for the ethos and in part for the fact that the group traveled widely. Seeing other parts of the country touched a nerve in the young Arkie that has yet to lose its spark.
“In the summer we would go on these epic two-week mission trips,” he says. “We went all the way up to Chicago and up into Canada. We went to Seattle once. We went out to South Carolina to one of the church camps out there. It was just a very fun period.”
Spurred by a competitive streak, Peacock was a good student and accomplished athlete in high school. By the time graduation rolled around he was all set to attend Baylor University when, on the suggestion of his mother, he applied for a Governor’s Scholarship through a program created by Gov. Bill and Hillary Clinton.
“At the time, every county got one, plus there were 25 at large,” he says. “There were 100 scholarships every year in Arkansas that you could take to an in-state school. It was an incentive to keep kids in state. I got the Woodruff County scholarship.”
Ouachita Baptist University came calling with the offer to accept the scholarship and waive any difference in cost, so Peacock packed up for Arkadelphia.
“I loved Ouachita. It was so instrumental in shaping who I am through the community of friends I made there,” Peacock says.
The college years also accelerated his love of travel. In addition to visiting the major metropolitan centers of the United States, he got the chance to experience international destinations. Some trips, like the semester he spent studying abroad in Austria, were part of a formal curriculum.
“We went over and we had a two-week break in the middle of the fall. I went all the way up to Scandinavia and visited a girl I knew from Ouachita who was studying in Moscow,” he says. “I saw St. Petersburg and Moscow and made my way back down through the Baltic states through Warsaw and Auschwitz, down through Poland and Berlin. I traveled every weekend and went all over Europe.”
Other adventures were less-sanctioned, like the European trip his older brother took with some pals, taking Peacock along for logistical support. The little brother showed a natural skill in the role, and he enthusiastically managed the itinerary to allow the group to experience the culture and history of the continent. Which they did, until the quitting bell rang.
“We did Paris over to San Sebastian down through Barcelona over to Monaco, down to Florence and all the way down to Rome and Brindisi over to Corfu in Greece,” he says. “Made our way back up through Salzburg and we went to Prague. That whole trip, I managed it and they let me do it.
“But we had one agreement: ‘Denver, you’re in charge until 5 o’clock and at 5 o’clock it’s happy hour and we’re going to the pubs.’ That was the deal. I didn’t drink at the time, so I kept an eye on things and made sure everyone got to the trains on time.”
ADVANCE MAN
After graduating from OBU, Peacock settled into law school at the University of Arkansas where he became gripped with the ambition of working on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Denver “was always the smartest kid, the one that tried to squeeze the most out of everything, always up for the most adventure,” Nelson Peacock says. “That carried through to him as he grew up and went to college and then made the decision to get involved in the campaign and ultimately move to Washington.”
Denver’s first assignment was on the advance team for a campaign stop before 30,000 people in De Pere, Wis., on Labor Day weekend.
“You’re trying to create energy for the campaign. You had to create an environment where people really were engaged,” he says. “That was my first real experience in doing a campaign and I’m there doing an event beyond just helping out with something. This was the real deal and they liked me and I liked them. They just kept me traveling.”
As the campaign wore on, Peacock, though still a volunteer, became a seasoned pro. Less than a year after he graduated from law school, he was offered a full-time job in the Clinton White House managing press trips. His passport soon bulged with stamps from all over the world as well as domestic ports of call.
During this time, he mastered the fine art of reading peoples’ expectations and winning them over by helping to make their jobs easier. Being in the proximity of some of the most powerful individuals in the world was another aspect of his real-world education.
“People in power want the things that we all want. They want a good breakfast, they want a nice place to sleep, they want to make sure they’re on time,” he says. “They just can’t do it for themselves because there’s so many other demands on their time and their attention. So, they need extra support.
“Those demands are things you have to be considerate about as you think about how to help them navigate from Point A to Point B while making sure we continue to deliver on the purpose of the trip.”
SMALL STATE, BIG WORLD
When Peacock decided to return to Arkansas, he came back with a set of skills and experiences that were uncommon in most people his age. As a consultant, and later as part of Little Rock advertising firm CJRW, he organized a long and impressive roster of events.
“We did the Clinton re-election campaign. We worked on one of the largest events Clinton ever spoke in front of,” says Tyler Denton, who has known Peacock for decades. “We did the Wesley Clark presidential campaign announcement.” Peacock and Denton also did “a lot of work together for Bono in Africa.”
Denton says Peacock’s expertise springs from a place of authenticity.
“Denver cares a lot about people. He cares a lot about his community,” he says. “He loves Little Rock and he’s continuously trying to find opportunities to make things better and he seeks no credit for it. He’s also a dear, dear friend.”
A sample of Peacock’s other work includes gubernatorial inaugurations, the opening of the Big Dam Bridge and organizing its signature cycling event, the Big Dam Bridge 100. He also worked on events related to the USS Razorback submarine traveling to its mooring in North Little Rock. And, he was involved to various degrees in the groundbreaking and grand opening events surrounding the Clinton Presidential Library.
“Denver gives 110% to anything he does. He goes all-in,” says Jordan Johnson, owner of JPJ Consulting, who has known Peacock since 1998. “He only commits to things that he can do, and he does a lot. He’s done things like help lead a community effort to change the name of a post office. He’s done all the civic stuff. He’s really involved in the Heights Neighborhood Association. Every detail, big or small, he does not miss.
“He is also really good about meeting with young people and giving them advice and opportunities to lift them up, and I think he does that because people did it for him. He’s opened doors for countless young people throughout his career. I’ve seen him do it.”
STEPPING UP FOR ROTARY
A few years ago, Peacock hung out his own shingle, The Peacock Group, while maintaining a heavy slate of community involvement and service projects. To each he brought a singular passion, vision and attention to detail whether taking the lead on the city’s tricentennial celebration in 2022 or leading the Rotary Club of Little Rock, one of the oldest chapters in the nation, as its president.
“[Rotary was] coming out of, basically, three presidents in a row who had to deal with covid,” he says. “We still had people who weren’t used to going to meetings, and we lost some people out of our club because of it. We’ve had to create a new energy within the club; that was no fault of my predecessors, it’s just the nature of covid’s impact on civic clubs.”
Peacock hit the ground running with an ambitious agenda to re-energize the club and its membership through diverse programming and highly visible events. Initiatives included celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Ottenheimer International Scholars Program, which sponsors international students each year, and recommitting to mentoring and service relationships at Little Rock’s Dunbar Middle School.
Earlier this summer, the club made headlines by honoring the Little Rock Nine with the inaugural La Petite Roche Global Service Award. Five of the eight surviving trailblazers accepted in person, and the other three attended virtually.
“Denver had a really bold strategy for re-engaging and growing membership, and it’s been remarkable to watch it become a reality,” says Chris Bahn, publisher of business special publications for the Arkansas Business Publishing Group.
“Rotary Club of Little Rock has added 70 new members since June 2022, and we’ve routinely packed the Clinton Center for our weekly meetings. The speaker lineup, largely a testament to Denver’s connections and persistence, made each week a can’t-miss event.”
The capstone to Peacock’s Rotary service is an idea conceived as part of Illuminate the Rock, that being the launch of a multi-million-dollar initiative to light the Veterans Memorial Bridge over the Arkansas River. For Peacock, who never met a challenge he didn’t like, the size of the task only stokes his urgency to seize the day and embrace what’s possible.
“We’re illuminating the Rock with our service and all these other things that we do as a community of Rotarians working together,” he says. “I want to symbolically illustrate that by illuminating the bridge. That was the whole idea behind Illuminate the Rock. It’s going to take several years, but I’m committed to helping us as a community find the right partners and figure out a way to do some really cool things with that [project].”
HOMETOWN VALUES
Peacock has often found himself a long way from his Delta homeland, be it through travel or working in the halls of power. But the spirit of that broad place resonates with him such that it’s never been left behind, instead fortifying at his core the same simple pillars of service, community and family that infuse his work and guide his steps.
“I’ve never felt intimidated, at all,” he says. “Even being a small-town boy with a country drawl, I never felt intimidated in my career being around all those Ivy League-educated people or traveling with President Clinton or the first lady or King Charles or Bono or whoever. I always had Arkansas common sense, I knew how to get things done, and I knew how to be nice to people.
“My parents instilled in me to always look for the best in others, and that’s part of my faith tradition as well. I always try to look at how I can approach any situation with any person with respect and compassion. You never know who you’re crossing paths with, so you should treat everybody with dignity and grace and love.”