Joe Fox and the late Benny Petrus will soon be inducted along with four others into the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame.
Induction ceremonies are scheduled for 11:30 a.m. March 27 in the Wally Allen Ballroom at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
Fox, who now lives in Fayetteville, built a 50-year career in wood products, forestry and conservation on what his father and grandfather started in 1947 with their family business in Pine Bluff, according to his hall bio. He is credited with uniting forestry businesses, nonprofits and state agencies to establish Arkansas’ largest conservation easement, the 15,923-acre Moro Big Pine Natural Area-Wildlife Management Area in Calhoun County. The area is also a working easement with Potlatch and offers a diverse habitat for wildlife and hunting.
Fox graduated from North Carolina State University with forestry and agriculture economic degrees in 1973.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“His early career focused on sustainability of Arkansas’ vast timberland, providing good paying jobs and manufacturing necessary products,” his bio reads. “Forest health and rural communities were priorities.”
Fox was vice president of W.S. Fox and Sons/Arkansas Oak Flooring for 20 years before working for Cloud Oak Flooring and then Hixson Lumber Sales in Rison from 1993-99. Fox joined the Arkansas Chapter of The Nature Conservancy as its director of conservation forestry in 2000.
He was appointed state forester in 2012 and assumed leadership in the state Forestry Commission. He also served as president of the National Association of State Foresters in 2020-21, earned the Arkansas Forestry Association President’s Award in 1986 and entered the Arkansas Foresters Hall of Fame in 2024.
Fox is credited with the saying: “Trees are the answer; what’s your question?”
Petrus, who died in May 2024 at age 67, served in the state House of Representatives from 2003-08. According to his biography for the hall, he spent most of his life raising crops and building businesses in or near Stuttgart.
A 1975 Stuttgart High graduate, Petrus attended the University of Central Arkansas for two years, playing baseball for the Bears and then selling cars around central Arkansas before returning to Arkansas County in 1990. Petrus eventually built, owned or operated five agricultural businesses and two automobile dealerships.
Petrus started his first farm in DeWitt in 2000. Among his agricultural ventures were Benny Petrus Farms; Circle P Farms, which he established in 2009 in Stuttgart; Adams Fertilizer Equipment; Bigham Ag of Carlisle, of which he became a partner; and Delta Wings in McGehee, of which he became an owner in 2024.
“Petrus employed innovative ways to conserve resources on his farms for decades, including digging ditches to hold runoff water for reuse on his farm,” his hall bio reads. “He championed issues in agriculture, education, economic development, environmental conservation and child protection at the state Capitol. Friends say Petrus was gifted in bringing people together to share knowledge and support of future agricultural leaders.”
Other inductees of the 38th class for the Ag Hall of Fame include:
Jim Carroll III of Moro, Lee County, who served on local and national boards including chair of the United States Soybean Board;
Allen B. Helms Jr. of Clarkedale, Crittenden County, who formed Allen Helms & Son with his father in 1971 and managed multiple farms, warehouses, gins and companies over the years;
Former Congresswoman Blanche Lincoln of Washington, D.C., who served in both the U.S. House and Senate and contributed to the agriculture industry in rural Arkansas and across the nation;
And John Paul Pendergrass of Charleston (Franklin County), who sustained and expanded a family cattle operation that started in 1870 and has been co-owner of Pendergrass Cattle Co. since 1979.
For ticket information to the induction ceremonies, contact Cindra Jones at (501) 228-1609 or visit the venue website.
