Carolyn Pollan

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Carolyn Joan Clark Pollan (born July 12, 1937) is a 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.

Pollan was born in Houston, Texas, to Rex Clark (1912-1980) and the former Faith Basie (1911-2002). Her father worked in the oil fields about Houston and later Refugio (pronounced RE FURY OH) 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 (pronounced SIGH LAM) 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.

Carolyn Clark 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.

Pollan's political involvement began as a volunteer in the gubernatorial campaigns of reform Republican Winthrop Rockefeller. In 1970, she ran Rockefeller's unsuccessful reelection campaign in Fort Smith against the Democrat Dale Leon 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.

Pollan left the House because of term limits. Republican Governor Michael Dale "Mike" Huckabee appointed her to the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission, on which she still serves.

Pollan is a former chairman of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement.

She formerly operated the Carolyn Pollan Patent Model Museum 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 welfare recipients to obtain employment.

In her early legislative years, she 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 is a member of the Grand Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Smith.

Pollan has endorsed fellow Arkansan Mike Huckabee for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

Preceded by Three at-large members, including Bernice Kizer	Arkansas State Representative from Sebastian County Carolyn Joan Clark Pollan 1975–1999	Succeeded by Jo Carson