A Celebration of Life memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, for Bob Lamb, 82, recipient of the 1989 UALR Distinguished Alumni Award. The service will be held at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville with the Rev. Carl Palmer officiating.

For 25 years, Lamb held the position of executive vice president of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Arkansas, playing a pivotal role in hundreds of economic development projects throughout the state.

Lamb organized and helped lead 14 statewide legislative issues or constitutional amendments on such matters as usury, freedom to work, ethics, taxation, and utility regulations. He served on more than 35 boards and commissions throughout the state on a variety of topics that included economic development, aviation and aerospace, environment, tourism, transportation, youth activities, and philanthropy and finance.

A conference center at the state chamber was dedicated in Lamb’s honor in 1990.

As a 15-year member and past chairman of the Board of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, he voted on bond projects totaling about $2 billion for housing projects, government buildings, prisons, tourism facilities, schools, hospitals, water and sewer facilities, and industrial and agricultural projects.

After leaving the state’s Chamber of Commerce, Lamb and his wife, DeeDee, moved to Fayetteville, where he worked another 18 years as an officer and director for the Arkansas Western Gas Company. There, he continued to work on job creation and legislation pertaining to the Fayetteville shale natural gas exploration in central Arkansas.

Lamb received an honorable discharge from the Naval Reserve and Army National Guard.

Among his many accomplishments, he also received the Arkansas Governor’s Certificate of Merit, 1974; Arkansas Distinguished Service Award, Arkansas Federation of Air and Water Users, 1989; Arkansas Economic Developers Lifetime Leadership Award, 2001; and Arkansas House of Representatives resolution of honor for 50 years of lobbying, 2005.

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