Don Harrell

— Don Harrell

An Arkansas Memorial Service celebrating the life of the late Don Harrell of New York City will be held at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at Ron Robinson Theater of the Central Arkansas Library System in downtown Little Rock’s River Market District. He died December 18, 2018, in New York.

Harrell served from 1981-1992 as Chief of Staff for lifelong friend and United States Senator David Pryor. A native of Camden, Arkansas, Harrell received his bachelor’s degree from Hendrix College in Conway. He later earned master’s degrees in international relations from American University, and in English from George Washington University - both in Washington, D.C. He earned his Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

He worked for Pryor in Little Rock from 1974-1978 as press secretary and speechwriter during Pryor’s tenure as governor, and later spent 11 years in Washington, D.C., as administrative assistant during Pryor’s three terms in the United States Senate. He left Pryor’s office in 1992, moving to New York where he worked for more than a decade as director of external affairs for TIAA - a higher education retirement fund.

Film footage of Pryor and Harrell together at Harrell’s 1992 Senate staff farewell party will be shown publicly for the first time.

Pryor, his wife Barbara, and a group of Harrell’s Arkansas friends are coordinating the service. Harrell’s wife, Chris, will be in attendance.

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