Ruebel Funeral Home

He was 81.He headed the Arts Center from 1968 until his retirement in 2002. During his tenure Wolfe transformed the Arts Center and, with his patrician bearing and aristocratic South Carolina drawl, came in many ways to represent the visual arts in Arkansas.One of his chief accomplishments was in identifying an area in which the Arts Center could lead and focusing on collecting great artworks on paper, making the center's collection one of the best in the world.In Arkansas Business' 25th anniversary publication, the Arkansas Arts Center was cited as undergoing one of the greatest turnarounds and transformations in state history under Wolfe's leadership, and Wolfe himself was listed among the top 25 "transplants" who made their mark on Arkansas.Wolfe cultivated wealthy art lovers but he also courted the public, working to draw crowds to the center and to make the Arts Center an essential element of the arts in Arkansas. His obituary noted that annual attendance at exhibits during his time leading the center grew from 80,000 to 343,000, while the value of the Art Center's collection rose to $35 million and the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation endowment grew to $21 million.Wolfe established the Children's Theatre at the center, put an Arts Center Artmobile on the road to take art throughout the state and opened the Decorative Arts Museum at the Pike-Fletcher-Terry House. "It was his mission to expose every Arkansan to art, but especially the State's young people," said his obituary. "He was zealous in this cause and taught successive generations of Arkansans how to appreciate art."Wolfe was also praised for his skill as an administrator. "He had a great eye for art," said Little Rock businessman Warren Stephens, "but he also knew where every penny was" in the Arts Center operation.Ruebel Funeral Home is handling the arrangements. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. today, Jan. 16, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral with a reception and family visitation to follow in Morrison Hall.Wolfe's full obituary can be read here.The top...

Ed GrayEd Gray, a longtime Little Rock newspaperman who loved books, animals and proper use of the English language, died July 2 at age 69. Ruebel Funeral Home posted his obituary on Wednesday.A man of great nervous energy and an evangelist for the books of Charles Portis, he could be as hard-headed as he was big-hearted and sharp-minded. After years on the copy desk of the Arkansas Gazette, he joined the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, where he was my boss before becoming books editor and editor of the Sunday Perspective section.Gray was born near Pottsville — in a chicken coop, he claimed — the ninth of 10 children who grew up poor. Max Brantley, in a blog post for the Arkansas Times, recalled his humor and his intellect, as well as a 5-gallon bucket of rum-raisin ice cream that he once brought to a Gazette Christmas potluck. I remember his zeal for deadlines, which drove him to rattle your chair if you weren’t moving the news along fast enough. “He never saw stray animals, because he always adopted them, and never saw a homeless person without food or drink, because he provided it,” the Ruebel obituary said.He is survived by a son, Watkins Fulk-Gray, and siblings Johnny and Pearl.The top stories of the day, right to your inboxRecommended article from FiveFilters.org: Most Labour MPs in the UK Are Revolting.