Raymond Rebsamen

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Raymond Rebsamen 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.

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 the 1940s 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 chaired Little Rock's Urban Progress Association in the 1960s, the predecessor to downtown redevelopment groups like Downtown Little Rock Unlimited, Little Rock Unlimited Progress, and the Little Rock Downtown Partnership.

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. A second elephant at the zoo is named Ruth after Rebsamen's granddaughter.

References

  • David Smith, "High Court Upholds Regions Financial's Deal for LR Insurer," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 13, 2007.

External links