Raymond Rebsamen

Raymond Rebsamen (d. December 25, 1975) was the founder of a number of companies in Little Rock, including Rebsamen Insurance, Rebsamen Ford, Providential Life Insurance Company, Eagle Realty, International Graphics, and Favorite Check Printers. All of the companies were eventually managed by the holding company Rebsamen Companies, Inc. (RCI). Rebsamen was also a prominent local philanthropist.

International Graphics, known as IGI until 1960, was established by Rebsamen in 1908 to manufacture checks and other forms. The company later spawned business forms manufacturer IBF and printing plant IGI. Both IBF and IGI were sold by then-owner Sam Sowell, to Posers Inc. in 1995. IGI was sold again to Magna IV Color Imaging of Little Rock in 1997.

Rebsamen Insurance was established in Little Rock in 1928. The company, sold for $40 million in 2001, today is an affiliate of the Regions Financial Corporation.

In February 1947 Rebsamen donated eighty acres of land to the Little Rock Junior College for a new campus. The campus is now home to the metropolitan University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Rebsamen was the first chair of regional planning organization Metroplan formed in 1955. Rebsamen also chaired Little Rock's Urban Progress Association from 1959 to 1965, a predecessor to downtown redevelopment group Little Rock Unlimited Progress and the Little Rock Downtown Partnership. In 1960 Rebsamen was quoted as saying, "Today, in this country of ours, there are more people living in the slums of our cities than on all the farms in all of the states. Who speaks to the President for these slum dwellers? Who speaks for the city officials who must provide far more than the average in costly municipal services and who speaks for the property owner of decent property who must pay more than his fair share of the taxes to make up for the slum owner who gets away for practically nothing? ... The tool to save our cities is urban renewal."

He was an original member of Fifty for the Future, organized to attract new businesses to the city with special funds.

In 1965 Rebsamen donated a brass sculpture of Icarus and Daedalus by Evangelos Frudakis to the Little Rock Main Library, then located at the corner of Eighth and Louisiana streets. The sculpure is now in the center of Rebsamen Plaza on the grounds of the new Main Library in the Little Rock River Market.

Rebsamen also gave $25,000 to help establish Rebsamen Golf Course, still the largest public golf course in the city.

Rebsamen was married to Martha Jane Ellis in 1957, the second of her three husbands. He has a daughter Ruth Remmel. An elephant at the Little Rock Zoo, since passed away, was named in her honor. An elephant born to Ruth at the zoo is named Ellen after Rebsamen's granddaughter.

References

• Jerry Dhonau, "Rebsamen: He Made Renewal Work," Arkansas Gazette, April 25, 1965.
• Leroy Donald, "Vintage Printing Firm Sold to LR Competitor," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, February 20, 1997.
• "Need for Urban Affairs Post in Cabinet is Cited," Beaumont Journal, April 21, 1960.
• David Smith, "High Court Upholds Regions Financial's Deal for LR Insurer," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 13, 2007.