Carolyn Pollan
Encyclopedia
Carolyn Joan Clark Pollan (born July 12, 1937) is an American politician and former Republican
member of the Arkansas House of Representatives
who served for twelve consecutive two-year terms from 1975-1999 from a portion of Sebastian County, which includes the state's second largest city of Fort Smith
. Pollan is the longest serving (1) Republican and (2) woman member of the Arkansas legislature in history and (3) the first woman Arkansas legislator to have been named House Associate Speaker Pro Tempore. Because of term limits, no one can top her records of longevity.
, to Rex Clark (1912–1980) and Faith Basie (1911–2002). Her father worked in the oil
fields about Houston and later Refugio
in south Texas. The family moved to Springdale
in Washington County
in northwestern Arkansas, and Mr. Clark made his living in the poultry
business.
Pollan graduated from Springdale High School
in 1955 and then procured her bachelor's degree
from the independent Christian
John Brown University
in Siloam Springs
in Benton County
. She graduated from JBU in 1959 and remains a member of the university trustees, having previously served as vice chairman. In 1993, Pollan was awarded her Ph.D.
in education
from the accredited on-line Walden University
in Minneapolis
, Minnesota
.
. In 1970, she ran Rockefeller's unsuccessful reelection campaign in Fort Smith against the Democrat
Dale L. Bumpers
. In 1972, she supported the unsuccessful challenge to Bumpers waged by Rockefeller's preferred candidate, Len E. Blaylock
, whom she describes as "a prince of a man."
Pollan was elected in 1974 from a multi-seat legislative district that encompassed Sebastian County. The district was eventually divided into single-member seats. She is particularly remembered, through her chairmanship of the House Children and Youth Committee, as the author of the law which empowers the Arkansas state police
to investigate allegations of child abuse
.
From 1980-1983, Pollan was legislative counsel and an informal advisor to Republican Governor
Frank D. White
. After White's election, Pollan and incoming gubernatorial chief of staff Preston Bynum
of Siloam Springs, a former Arkansas House minority leader, prepared the 1981 budget—keeping the 1980 level of spending minus 5 percent. Pollan recalls a "stunned silence" over the state capital in Little Rock when White upset Governor Bill Clinton
in 1980, a sense of disbelief among state employees and elected officials. Clinton returned to victory in 1982.
After White's defeat in 1982, Pollan nominated University of Arkansas at Little Rock
law professor Morris S. Arnold
to become the new Republican Party state chairman. She said that she hoped Arnold could bridge the gap in the Arkansas party between the former Rockefeller partisans, such as herself, and the burgeoing Reagan backers. Arnold, however, did not complete his term as a parttime chairman.
In her early legislative years, Pollan was frequently one of only a half dozen Republicans among the one hundred House members. Her early GOP
colleagues, all originally from the northwestern part of the state, included Bynum, Jim L. Smithson
of Marshall
, the seat of Searcy County, C. W. Melson
of Ozone, Jerry D. King of Greenwood
in Sebastian County, and Richard L. Barclay
of Rogers
in Benton County. In the early 1980s, she was a colleague of Republican Judy Petty
from a Little Rock
-based district. Petty waged two publicized congressional campaigns in 1974 and 1984 against Wilbur Daigh Mills
and Tommy F. Robinson
, respectively. Pollan won her last election in 1996 without Democratic opposition.
Pollan left the House because of term limits. Republican Governor Michael Dale "Mike" Huckabee
appointed her to the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission.
in Fort Smith, an exhibit of newly-obtained patented items. After its first year of operation, the museum was free to the public. She later sold her collection to a museum in New York State.
A descendant of Union veterans, Pollan is active in the Civil War Roundtable
of Arkansas and has written related articles for the Fort Smith Historical Society Journal. Pollan was involved in literacy education in Fort Smith and worked to develop procedures to encourage recipients of public welfare to obtain employment.
Church in Fort Smith.
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
member of the Arkansas House of Representatives
Arkansas House of Representatives
The Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The House is composed of 100 members elected from an equal amount of constituencies across the state. Each district has an average population of 26,734...
who served for twelve consecutive two-year terms from 1975-1999 from a portion of Sebastian County, which includes the state's second largest city of Fort Smith
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith is the second-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. With a population of 86,209 in 2010, it is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents which encompasses the Arkansas...
. Pollan is the longest serving (1) Republican and (2) woman member of the Arkansas legislature in history and (3) the first woman Arkansas legislator to have been named House Associate Speaker Pro Tempore. Because of term limits, no one can top her records of longevity.
Early years
Pollan was born in Houston, TexasHouston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, to Rex Clark (1912–1980) and Faith Basie (1911–2002). Her father worked in the oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
fields about Houston and later Refugio
Refugio, Texas
Refugio is a town in Refugio County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,941 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Refugio County. Although the town's name is derived from Spanish, a vast majority of the town's residents pronounce it re-fury-oh. The Spanish pronunciation is...
in south Texas. The family moved to Springdale
Springdale, Arkansas
As of the census of 2010, there were 69,797 people, 22,805 households, and 16,640 families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 64.7% White, 0.82% Black or African American, 1.8% Native American, 1.4% Asian, 5.7% Pacific Islander, 22% from other races, and 2.9% from two or more...
in Washington County
Washington County, Arkansas
Washington County is a county located in the northwest part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of 2010, the population was 203,065. The county seat is Fayetteville. Washington County is Arkansas's 17th county, formed on October 17, 1828, and named for George Washington, the first President of the...
in northwestern Arkansas, and Mr. Clark made his living in the poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
business.
Pollan graduated from Springdale High School
Springdale High School
Springdale High School is a public high school in Springdale, Arkansas, United States for students in grades ten through twelve. Springdale High School is one of two high schools administered by the Springdale School District, the other being Har-Ber High School. SHS is also an IB World School...
in 1955 and then procured her bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
from the independent Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
John Brown University
John Brown University
The main campus in Northwest Arkansas has been the site of the university since it was founded in 1919. JBU has 2,183 students as of the 2011-2012 school year, 1,279 of which are traditional undergraduates. Of these, 878 live on campus. The Graduate School has 468 students...
in Siloam Springs
Siloam Springs, Arkansas
Siloam Springs is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 13,990...
in Benton County
Benton County, Arkansas
Benton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2000 census, the population was 153,406. The U.S. Census Bureau 2010 population is 221,339. The county seat is Bentonville. Benton County was formed on 30 September 1836 and was named after Thomas Hart Benton, a U.S...
. She graduated from JBU in 1959 and remains a member of the university trustees, having previously served as vice chairman. In 1993, Pollan was awarded her Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
from the accredited on-line Walden University
Walden University
Walden University is a private, for-profit, specialized distance learning institution of higher education. Headquartered in the Mills District in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Walden University offers Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, Master of Business Administration, Master of Public...
in Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
.
Career
Pollan's political involvement began as a volunteer in the gubernatorial campaigns of reform Republican Winthrop RockefellerWinthrop Rockefeller
Winthrop Rockefeller was a politician and philanthropist who served as the first Republican Governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He was a third-generation member of the Rockefeller family.-Early life:...
. In 1970, she ran Rockefeller's unsuccessful reelection campaign in Fort Smith against the Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Dale L. Bumpers
Dale Bumpers
Dale Leon Bumpers is an American politician who served as the 38th Governor of Arkansas from 1971 to 1975; and then in the United States Senate from 1975 until his retirement in January 1999. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Senator Bumpers is currently counsel at the Washington, D.C...
. In 1972, she supported the unsuccessful challenge to Bumpers waged by Rockefeller's preferred candidate, Len E. Blaylock
Len E. Blaylock
Len Everette Blaylock, Sr. , is a retired farmer, educator, small businessman, and Republican politician from tiny Nimrod in Perry County in northwestern Arkansas. He was state welfare commissioner under Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, the GOP gubernatorial nominee , the U.S...
, whom she describes as "a prince of a man."
Pollan was elected in 1974 from a multi-seat legislative district that encompassed Sebastian County. The district was eventually divided into single-member seats. She is particularly remembered, through her chairmanship of the House Children and Youth Committee, as the author of the law which empowers the Arkansas state police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
to investigate allegations of child abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
.
From 1980-1983, Pollan was legislative counsel and an informal advisor to Republican Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
Frank D. White
Frank D. White
Frank Durward White was the 41st Governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He served a single two-year term from 1981 to 1983. He is one of only two people to have defeated President Bill Clinton in an election. Frank Durward White (June 4, 1933 – May 21, 2003) was...
. After White's election, Pollan and incoming gubernatorial chief of staff Preston Bynum
Preston Bynum
Preston Conrad Bynum is a high-powered lobbyist in Little Rock, Arkansas, who served as a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from January 1969 to December 1980. On his first election, Bynum was one of only four Republicans in the 100-member House; when his party's...
of Siloam Springs, a former Arkansas House minority leader, prepared the 1981 budget—keeping the 1980 level of spending minus 5 percent. Pollan recalls a "stunned silence" over the state capital in Little Rock when White upset Governor Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
in 1980, a sense of disbelief among state employees and elected officials. Clinton returned to victory in 1982.
After White's defeat in 1982, Pollan nominated University of Arkansas at Little Rock
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
University of Arkansas at Little Rock , is a public research university located in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States, and the second largest university by enrollment in the state of Arkansas....
law professor Morris S. Arnold
Morris S. Arnold
Morris Sheppard "Buzz" Arnold is a senior-status jurist of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. A Republican, he was appointed to the appeals court by U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush. His tenure began on June 1, 1992. For his first twelve years, until 2004, he...
to become the new Republican Party state chairman. She said that she hoped Arnold could bridge the gap in the Arkansas party between the former Rockefeller partisans, such as herself, and the burgeoing Reagan backers. Arnold, however, did not complete his term as a parttime chairman.
In her early legislative years, Pollan was frequently one of only a half dozen Republicans among the one hundred House members. Her early GOP
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
colleagues, all originally from the northwestern part of the state, included Bynum, Jim L. Smithson
Jim L. Smithson
Jimmy Lee Smithson, known as Jim L. Smithson , is a conservative Republican former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives who is remembered for cosponsoring legislation in his state to allow generic substitution of prescription medications...
of Marshall
Marshall, Arkansas
Marshall is a city in Searcy County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 1,313 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Searcy County. Marshall was incorporated in 1884.-Geography:Marshall is located at ....
, the seat of Searcy County, C. W. Melson
C. W. Melson
Cyrus William "C.W." Melson was a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from the Ozone community in Johnson County in northwestern Arkansas. He served from 1977 until his death in office....
of Ozone, Jerry D. King of Greenwood
Greenwood, Arkansas
Greenwood is a city in and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County, Arkansas, United States, perhaps best known locally for its Arkansas high school football...
in Sebastian County, and Richard L. Barclay
Richard L. Barclay
Richard L. "Dick" Barclay is a Certified Public Accountant in Rogers, a city in Benton County in the northwestern corner of Arkansas, USA, who was a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from December 31, 1976- December 31, 1992...
of Rogers
Rogers, Arkansas
Rogers is a suburban city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city has a population of 55,964. The city is located in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Area, in the northwest corner of the state.-History:...
in Benton County. In the early 1980s, she was a colleague of Republican Judy Petty
Judy Petty Wolf
Judy C. Petty, later Judy Petty Wolf , is a retired officer of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and a former Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives...
from a Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
-based district. Petty waged two publicized congressional campaigns in 1974 and 1984 against Wilbur Daigh Mills
Wilbur Mills
Wilbur Daigh Mills , was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Arkansas...
and Tommy F. Robinson
Tommy F. Robinson
Tommy Franklin Robinson is a politician from the state of Arkansas.-Early life:Robinson was born in Little Rock and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He served in the United States Navy from 1959 to 1963....
, respectively. Pollan won her last election in 1996 without Democratic opposition.
Pollan left the House because of term limits. Republican Governor Michael Dale "Mike" Huckabee
Mike Huckabee
Michael "Mike" Dale Huckabee is an American politician who served as the 44th Governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was a candidate in the 2008 United States Republican presidential primaries, finishing second in delegate count and third in both popular vote and number of states won . He won...
appointed her to the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission.
Civic affairs
Pollan is a former chairman of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement. She formerly operated the Carolyn Pollan Patent Model MuseumMuseum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
in Fort Smith, an exhibit of newly-obtained patented items. After its first year of operation, the museum was free to the public. She later sold her collection to a museum in New York State.
A descendant of Union veterans, Pollan is active in the Civil War Roundtable
Civil War Roundtable
Civil War Roundtables are a loosely organized group of independent organizations that share a common interest in the study, promotion, and recognition of the American Civil War...
of Arkansas and has written related articles for the Fort Smith Historical Society Journal. Pollan was involved in literacy education in Fort Smith and worked to develop procedures to encourage recipients of public welfare to obtain employment.
Personal life
Pollan married George Angelo Pollan (born 1938), a Fort Smith native. They have two married children, Cee Ce Mings (born 1962) and Robert E. "Rob" Pollan (born 1968), both of Fort Smith, and four grandchildren. She is a member of the Grand Avenue BaptistBaptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
Church in Fort Smith.