TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS COME – GREETINGS:
WHEREAS: Tommy Franklin Robinson, born March 7, 1942, served as Pulaski County Sheriff and U.S. Representative from Arkansas’ Second Congressional District. Robinson passed away on July 10, 2024, loved by his family, friends, and colleagues, and remembered as a public servant for the people of Arkansas;
WHEREAS: Robinson’s career began in the U.S. Navy before he entered law enforcement in Central Arkansas. He served with the Arkansas State Police, the North Little Rock Police, the U.S. Marshal Service, as the Director of Public Safety for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the Jacksonville Police Chief, the Arkansas Director of Public Safety, and Pulaski County Sheriff;
WHEREAS: Following his prominent career in law enforcement, Robinson successfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1984, representing Little Rock and surrounding communities. He became a Republican in his third term, before running for Arkansas Governor in 1988. He left Congress in 1991;
WHEREAS: Robinson served in several roles in Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s administration, including on the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission, the State Parole Board, and the Arkansas Rural Development Commission;
WHEREAS: Robinson was popular and loved across Arkansas during his decades in public life. It is fitting and right for Arkansas to honor him and his decades of service to her people.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, Governor of the State of Arkansas, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the laws of the State of Arkansas, in tribute to the memory of Tommy Robinson and as an expression of public sorrow, do hereby direct that the United States flag and the state flag of Arkansas be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on July 16, 2024, the day of Robinson’s interment.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of Arkansas to be affixed this 15th day of July, in the year of our Lord 2024.