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R. A. "Brick" Lile was born September 14, 1908, in Magnolia,
Arkansas, the son of J.G. and Emma McLure Lile. He graduated from Ouachita
Baptist College (now University) in 1927. He taught school in south
Arkansas for two years before joining the faculty of Pine Bluff High
School to teach geometry. While at Pine Bluff, he was assigned to teach
bookkeeping, although he had no background for the subject. To learn about
it, he took accounting courses by correspondence and decided to make
accounting his career.
In 1933, he joined Russell Brown and Company, a firm of certified
public accountants in Little Rock. In 1934, he became the fifth candidate
since the creation of the Arkansas CPA regulations to pass the entire exam
on the first attempt. He became a partner in Russell Brown and Company in
1937, and remained there until 1948, when he formed his own firm, R. A.
Lile and Company. In 1961, his company merged into Peat, Marwick, Mitchell
and Company, one of the world’s largest accounting firms. Later, Lile
formed Transportation Properties, Inc.
R. A. "Brick" Lile was active in many areas of business and
community life. He became a member of the Baptist Medical System Board of
Trustees in 1952 and served in that capacity for many years. He was one of
the founders of Continental Bus Company, which merged with Holiday Inn,
and he was a Board of Directors member. Lile was also a Director of the
National Old Line Insurance Company, Home Theaters Inc., and the
Industrial Development Company of Little Rock. He served on the boards of
the Little Rock YMCA, the Chamber of Commerce and the Arkansas Children’s
Hospital. Lile organized the Riverdale Country Club, which later became
the Pleasant Valley Country Club. He served six years on the Little Rock
School Board during the 1950s, including the time of the Central High
school desegregation crisis. Mr. Lile was involved in developing the
Pleasant Valley residential area and was the president of the developing
corporation from its beginning. With Winthrop Rockefeller as a partner, he
built the Tower Building in downtown Little Rock and the Bank of New
Mexico at Albuquerque. Lile was also an organizer of the Fifty for the
Future civic organization, working for the economic betterment of Little
Rock.
"Mr. Lile was a giant in every sense of the word. His physical
presence dominated any room into which he entered. He had a heart of gold
from which he shared both the spiritual and material wealth that God had
bestowed on him." - Visions, Fall 1987
Contact Us
Jacynda Ammons
OBU Box 3729
Arkadelphia, AR 71998
ammonsj@obu.edu
870.245.5332
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