W. R. Witt Stephens

W.R. Witt Stephens was the founder of Stephens Inc. in Little Rock, Arkansas. The company was founded as a bond trading business in 1933. Stephens borrowed $15,000 that Depression year and began buying up municipal, school, and levee bonds at bargain prices. When bond prices rebounded he purchased interest in thirty-seven Arkansas banks. In 1946 his brother Jack Stephens became a partner in the company.

Stephens purchased the Arkansas and Louisiana Gas Company (Arkla) in 1954.