David Hampton Pryor was born on August 29, 1934, in Camden, Ouachita County, Arkansas, to William and Susan Pryor. He was raised there along with his brother, Bill, and sisters, Elinor and Cornelia.
Pryor moved to Fayetteville to attend the University of Arkansas, where he met Barbara Jean Lunsford. They were married on November 28, 1957. That same year Pryor received his bachelor’s degree, and they moved to Camden and started the weekly newspaper, Ouachita Citizen.
Pryor began his public service as an Arkansas state representative in 1960. He returned to Fayetteville and entered the university law school while serving as a representative. After earning his degree, he practiced law with Harry Barnes in Camden for four years. In 1966 Pryor was elected to the US House of Representatives for Arkansas’s 4th Congressional District and went on to serve three terms. In 1972 he ran for the US Senate against the five-term senator, John McClellan, but lost to him in the runoff.
Pryor returned to law practice for the next two years but said he “felt like a fish out of water.” He entered the gubernatorial race and won the primary, defeating Orville Faubus among others. Pryor went on to win the general election and took office as governor of Arkansas in 1975. After two terms as governor, he made another bid for the US Senate and won in 1978. After serving three terms, Pryor retired from politics in 1997.
Pryor returned to Fayetteville to teach at the University of Arkansas, and in 2000 he became the director at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Pryor was the inaugural dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service from 2004 to 2006. Governor Mike Beebe appointed Pryor to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees in 2009.
Pryor served eight years on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Board of Directors, and in 2019 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from CPB in honor of his outstanding contributions to public media. Pryor donated his papers to University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections. In 1999 he donated unspent campaign funds to the university to found the Arkansas Center for Oral and Visual History, which was later renamed in the Pryors’ honor.
The Pryors have three children, David H. Jr., Mark, and Scott, and four grandchildren, David H. III, Adams, Porter, and Devon.
#1: Composite image of early photo of David H. Pryor and still frame from Pryor Center video interview
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#2: David Pryor as an infant
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#3: David Pryor as a child, Camden, Arkansas
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#4: David Pryor (seated) with his mother and siblings (counterclockwise from lower right), Cornelia, William Jr., Susan Newton Pryor, and Elinor, ca. 1942
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#5: David Pryor as a child, Camden, Arkansas
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#6: David Pryor as a child, Camden, Arkansas
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#7: David Pryor as a child, Camden, Arkansas
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#8: David Pryor (top row, 3rd from right) with the Camden Junior High School football team, Camden, Arkansas, 1948
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#9: David Pryor (5th from right, #34) with co-captain, Charles Plunkett (6th from right, #38) and the Camden High School Panther football team, Camden, Arkansas, 1952
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#10: David Pryor's father, Edgar Pryor
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#11: David Pryor and Barbara Lunsford at a Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity formal dance, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1957
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#12: David Pryor (2nd from right) at his wedding rehearsal with his groomsmen: Dean Brown, Lloyd Lindsey, Gordon Newton, and W. Jack Williams, 1957
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#13: David Pryor shaking hands with President Lyndon Johnson (right)
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#14: Congressman David Pryor with his sons, Mark, Scott and Dee, Washington, DC, 1967
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#15: Barbara and David Pryor with their sons, Mark, Scott, and Dee, Christmas 1967
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#16: Congressman David Pryor campaigning for the US Senate, 1972
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#17: David Pryor with constituents during US Senate race, 1972
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#18: David Pryor (right) campaigning during US Senate race, Monticello, Arkansas, 1972
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#19: United States Senator David Pryor, Washington, DC, 1982
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#20: David and Barbara Pryor at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government where Pryor served as director; Harvard University, 2001
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#21: David Pryor depicted with Governor Mike Beebe in a political cartoon by John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 11, 2009
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#22: Behind-the-scenes photo from Pryor Center interview with David H. Pryor; Fayetteville, Arkansas, 2013
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#23: Behind-the-scenes photo from Pryor Center interview with David H. Pryor; Fayetteville, Arkansas, 2013
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#24: Still frame from Pryor Center video interview with John L. Philpot; Fayetteville, Arkansas, 2018
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#25: Still frame from Pryor Center video interview with David H. Pryor; Fayetteville, Arkansas, 2013
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
