Citadel Alumni Obituaries

Ferd M. Bellingrath, Jr., 82, died Friday, Nov. 19, 2010 at Trinity
Village Medical Center. He was born May 24, 1928 in Pine Bluff to the
late Ferdinand McMillan Sr. and Catherine Oudin Bellingrath. He grew up
at the family home at 7520 Dollarway Road. He graduated from Pine Bluff
High School, attended The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. for two years and
graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the
University of Arkansas in 1950, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha
Epsilon fraternity, served as editor of the University’s business
magazine, The Guild Ticker, and was a member of the Blue Key honorary
leadership fraternity. He returned to Pine Bluff after his graduation
from college to join the family business, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company
of Southeast Arkansas. On Oct. 28, 1950, he married Frances Howell
Martin, also of Pine Bluff. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean
War, stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Md., and was
honorably discharged as a First Lieutenant. Throughout his life, Mr.
Bellingrath had a deep sense of stewardship. He was a member of First
Presbyterian Church, where he served as Chairman of the Board of Deacons
and as Chairman of the Committee on General Administration. He chaired
the Every Member Canvass, taught youth Sunday School, and was an active
leader in the life of his church. At age 39, he was ordained as an
Elder. Other of his Christian endeavors included serving as a trustee of
Lyon College for 24 years, where he additionally served as Vice Chair,
chair of the Investment Committee and the Business and Finance
Committee. He served three terms as president of Trinity Village, Inc.
in Pine Bluff. He served on the board of the Vera Lloyd Presbyterian
Home for children in Monticello. In the late 80s and early 90s, he
served as a director of the Bruised Reed Foundation, a foundation with
the primary goal of building a cancer center at Presbyterian Medical
Center in Chonju, Korea. A career Coca-Cola bottler who came up through
the ranks, Bellingrath ultimately became Chairman of the Board of the
Coca-Cola Bottling Company of South Arkansas. In 1985, the Company was
named Outstanding Large Business in Pine Bluff at Pine Bluff’s All Civic
Night. At the time the company was sold in 1986, it had the highest
market-share of any Coca-Cola Bottling Company in the United States.
Bellingrath had previously served as a member of the first President’s
Advisory Council of Coca-Cola USA. He had also served as president of
the Arkansas Soft-Drink Association and the Arkansas Coca-Cola Council.
He served for 13 years on the Board of Governors of the Coca-Cola
Bottlers’ Association, a national association of more than 500 Coca-Cola
bottling companies, and served two terms as president of the
association. Mr. Bellingrath quietly gave to many worthy causes and was
known to be effective in encouraging others to give. He chaired an
annual fund drive for the American Red Cross of Jefferson County in the
1950s, the 1961 Community Chest fund drive (precursor to the United
Way), and the 1976 Jefferson County Cancer Society fund drive. In 1988,
he chaired the first Partners in Progress fund-drive for the Pine Bluff
Chamber of Commerce, which exceeded its $1,000,000 goal by more than
40%. In the early 1990s, he became the first chairman of the Senior
Leadership Council of the United Way of Southeast Arkansas and in 1994
he co-chaired the successful Legacy of Caring campaign for Trinity
Village. He served on the steering committee of the multi-year Campaign
for Lyon College, which raised more than $90 million. In civic affairs,
Bellingrath served as president of Pine Bluff Rotary Club, the Pine
Bluff Chamber of Commerce, and the Jefferson County Chapter of the
American Red Cross. He was a founding member and president of Fifty for
the Future of Pine Bluff. He was a founding director and the second
chairman of the Pine Bluff Clean and Beautiful Commission. He was a
founding director of Pine Bluff Area Community Foundation, and in 1986
established the Catherine Oudin Bellingrath Beautification Fund there in
honor of his mother. He served as a director of the Jefferson County
Industrial Foundation for 16 years and as an officer for three years. He
also served on the board of Associated Industries of Arkansas. At age
27, Bellingrath was elected to the Board of Directors of National Bank
of Commerce of Pine Bluff where he served for 27 years. He was a
founding investor and director of the Midland Corporation, which
developed residential subdivisions in southwest Pine Bluff, and
Jefferson Investors, Inc., which developed the spec buildings in
Jefferson Industrial Park. In 1965, he founded Automatic Vending of
Arkansas, Inc. as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Bottling
Company of Southeast Arkansas. He later acquired neighboring bottling
rights for Coca-Cola and added Dr. Pepper and 7-Up to his Company’s
product line. For several years, he served on the Board of Directors of
the Hot Springs Coca-Cola Bottling Company. A believer in life-long
learning, Bellingrath attended the Coca-Cola Advanced Management Program
at Harvard in 1967, the American Management Association Management
Course for Presidents in 1971, and the Stanford Executive Program in
1981. At age 17, he became the youngest licensed pilot in the state of
Arkansas. He held all major aircraft piloting certifications, including
the Air Transport Rating, the rating held by airline pilots. He was
type-rated to fly the Citation I business jet. In addition to using his
piloting skills for business and pleasure, he also flew search
committees for his church, civic groups, and people facing serious
health issues, including famed archer Ben Pearson. Mr. Bellingrath
placed great value on the people he knew. He was known for his
thoughtfulness and was admired for his humility. He was devoted to his
wife, his children and extended family, and his sense of family extended
to his co-workers. He took pride in the many long-term employees of his
company. Bellingrath loved bird hunting, fishing, and snow-skiing with
friends and family. For many years he looked forward to playing in the
annual four-ball golf tournament at Pine Bluff Country Club with his
close friend, Dr. Peter H’Doubler. He loved the changing of the seasons
in Arkansas and held a lifelong love for Colorado. He entertained
friends by reciting the poetry of Robert W. Service. He was a member of
Lost Island Duck Club and previously had belonged to Drake’s Landing
hunting club. He was a member of JRMC Wellness Center and exercised
regularly until the last few months of his life. Although he believed in
being “a workhorse, not a show horse,” Mr. Bellingrath was honored
significantly as his career came to a close. In 1987, he received the
Award of Exceptional Accomplishment from the Arkansas Community
Development Program of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce. In 1988,
he was inducted into the Leadership Pine Bluff Hall of Fame. In 1989,
the Pine Bluff Commercial named him one of the ten most influential
people in Pine Bluff. Mayor Jerry Taylor declared Oct. 24, 1995 to be
“Ferd Bellingrath Day” in Pine Bluff, honoring his fifty years of
aircraft piloting. In 2001, his brother’s children established the Ferd
M. Bellingrath Endowed Scholarship at Lyon College in his honor. In
2004, the classroom wing of the newly-erected Derby Center for math and
science at Lyon College was named in honor Mr. Bellingrath and his wife.
Bellingrath was predeceased by his parents and by his brother, Leonard
F. Bellingrath. His forebears included the late Walter Duncan
Bellingrath, who, with his wife, Bessie, founded Bellingrath Gardens
near Mobile, Ala. Mr. Bellingrath was close to his many cousins in
Montgomery, Ala. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, “”Sis”", his
son, Mac (Gail) Bellingrath of Pine Bluff, and his daughter, Marti
Bellingrath, of Nashville, Tenn. He is also survived by his four
grandchildren, Frances Atkins of Aspen, Colorado; Hunter Atkins of
Augusta, Georgia; and Kate and Duncan Bellingrath of Pine Bluff. He is
also survived by an uncle who was more like a brother to him, E. Marc
Oudin, Sr. (Carolyn) of Little Rock; two sisters-in-law, Denny R.
Bellingrath and Mary Sue Mosenthin; five nephews, Dr. Len F.
Bellingrath, Jr., Scott Bellingrath, Dr. Edward Bellingrath, Martin
Mosenthin, and Edwin Mosenthin; one niece, Catherine Bellingrath Weiss;
and 12 grandnephews and nieces; Marc’s four children, E. Marc Oudin,
Jr., Dora Jane Oudin Flesher, Ann Oudin Jarrell, Mary Catherine Oudin
Mann, and their spouses and children; a cousin, Elsie Bellingrath
Stebbins of Little Rock; and by many descendants of his aunt and uncle,
Eugenia Oudin and M. Stanley Cook, Sr. including his cousin, Joe E. Cook
of Fairhope, Alabama.

Tags: 1950