James R. Rodgers Sr. (1947–1993)

Pioneering Airport Executive and Civic Leader

James R. Rodgers Sr. was the first African American appointed executive director of a U.S. airport, the first Black head of a major independent city agency in Little Rock (Pulaski County), and Arkansas’s first Black commercial loan officer.

Born March 15, 1947, in Little Rock, Rodgers grew up in the Tuxedo Courts housing development and graduated from Horace Mann High School in 1965. He served in the U.S. Air Force as a radar technician and later earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1972.

Rodgers began his career at First National Bank, where he rose to the role of commercial loan officer. In 1977, he joined Little Rock Regional Airport (now Bill and Hilary Clinton National Airport) as an administrative assistant and was named executive director in 1980 at the age of thirty-three. During his tenure through 1993, he oversaw over $70 million in airport expansion projects, including major terminal renovations and the construction of the east runway, helping to double annual boardings to over one million.

An active community leader, Rodgers was a member of the American Association of Airport Executives and the Airport Operators Council International. He also volunteered with the American Red Cross, Boy Scouts Quapaw Council, and chaired the Little Rock branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He passed away on December 21, 1993, and is buried at Little Rock National Cemetery.

Rodgers was posthumously honored with the dedication of Southwest Hospital’s MRI unit in his name and his 1994 induction into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame. In 2025, Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport and the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission dedicated James R. Rodgers Sr. Drive, commemorating his contributions to aviation, the Little Rock community, and the nation.