Richard Weiss was born to missionaries in the Belgian Congo, where he spent much of his childhood. After graduating high school in Kenya in 1962, Weiss completed an undergraduate degree from Baylor University before moving to Arkansas and working at Devil’s Den State Park. He worked for the Arkansas Parks Department until 1984, when he took a position as head of the state’s Budget Office, a position he held until 1993. In 1993, Governor Jim Guy Tucker named Weiss as Director of the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Weiss led the DFA until his retirement in 2014.
#1: Still frame from Pryor Center video interview with Richard Weiss; Little Rock, Arkansas, 2012
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#2: Richard Weiss with his parents, Naomi Gilbert and Norman William Weiss
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#3: Richard Weiss
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#4: Richard Weiss
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#5: Richard Weiss with his wife, Jan, in the Governor's Conference Room at the Arkansas State Capitol, Little Rock, Arkansas
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#6: Richard Weiss with his family at his swearing-in ceremony as director of the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration; Governor's Conference Room, Arkansas State Capitol, Little Rock, Arkansas; 2006
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#7: Richard Weiss, 2006
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#8: Richard Weiss, Governor Bill Clinton, and Jim Pledger in a mock up of a fake issue of Financial World magazine, 1992
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#9: Richard Weiss, Deputy Director of the Department of Finance and Administration, Governor Bill Clinton, Jim Pledger, Director of the Department of Finance and Administration. This photo was placed into a mock-up of the May 12, 1992 Financial World, which ranked Arkansas's financial status and health lower than state government officals thought was fair. This mock-up poked fun at the magazine. Close up of writing.
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#10: Still frame from Pryor Center video interview with Richard Weiss; Little Rock, Arkansas, 2012
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#11: Still frame from Pryor Center video interview with Richard Weiss; Little Rock, Arkansas, 2012
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
