| Hughes, Arkansas School Faculty Memorial |
| Bert Claud Pouncey, II June 19, 1915 – February 5, 1971 Acting Superintendent Tenure: 1959 |
| Mr. Pouncey was born May 14, 1901 at Helena, Phillips County, Arkansas, son of Bert Claud Pouncy I and Laura Lee (Ladd) Pouncey. The family moved to Memphis, where he graduated from Central High School, after which he acquired a B.S. Degree in Commercial Engineering from Carnegie Institute of Technology In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He then returned to Tennessee, where he married Dorothy Elizabeth Holmes on June 18, 1932. From 1933 to 1935 he owned and operated the Milan Theatre Company in Milan, Tennessee, but moved to Hughes in 1936 to assume management of the Atoka Farm, started by his father nineteen years before. Although knowledge of Mr. Pouncey’s association with HHS stems primarily from his presidency of the school board, his inclusion in the faculty memorial arises from his service as interim superintendent, which he began in September 1957 after the death of Superintendent Roy M. Nelson. In addition to his school board service, Mr. Pouncey was also a bank director, a Rotarian, a member of the Cotton Exchange in Memphis, the American Waterways Operators, the St. Francis County Farm Bureau, a partner in Kelley Oil Company, and the owner of Atoka Farm and the Anoka Boat and Towing Company. In addition, he was active in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, in which he achieved by election the rank of National Commodore in 1951, and he is credited with co-founding the AUXOP Program, which involved specially trained Operational Units that conducted rescue search drills in cooperation with the Civil Air Patrol. He and his family belonged to the Episcopalian-Holy Cross Parish in Hughes. Mr. Pouncey died on February 5, 1971. |
