Five Named to Enter Business Hall of Fame.

Five business leaders were selected to Arkansas Business Hall of Fame last week.

The late Col. Thomas H. Barton, principal architect of the Lion Oil Co.; the late William E. Darby, past president and chairman of the board of National Old Line Insurance Co.; J.B. and Johnelle Hunt, senior chairman of the board and corporate secretary of J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.; and John H. Johnson, publisher, chairman and CEO of Johnson Publishing Co., were elected to the Hall of Fame, according to a news release from the Sam M. Walton College of Business Administration of the University of Arkansas.

A selection committee of nine business people reviewed the nominations from the public and chose the inductees based on significance of the impact made as a business leader, the concern demonstrated for improving the community and the display of ethics, in all business dealings.

"The one thread that runs through all of their careers is that they were innovators and entrepreneurs -- ahead of their time in the world of business," Reynie Rutledge, chairman of First Security Bancorp in Searcy and chair of the selection process, said in the news release.

Barton acquired the insignificant Lion Oil Co. in El Dorado in the 1920s and built it into a major oil company. Monsanto Chemical Co. acquired it in 1956, and he joined the Monsanto's board of directors. He died in 1960.

Darby joined National Old Line Insurance in Little Rock in 1929, and worked his way up to president and chairman of the board. When he retired in 1972, National Old Line had grown to a billion-dollar business. He died in 1979.

The Hunts founded and built the transportation services and logistics company, J.B Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell, which currently has annual revenue exceeding $2 billion.

Johnson is the founder of the largest black-owned publishing company in the world and is the publisher of Ebony and Jet.

The third annual Arkansas Business Hall of Fame dinner will be Feb. 9 at the Statehouse Convention Center in little Rock.