John Tipton "Tip" Pugh

John Tipton “Tip” Pugh, 73, of Portland (Ashley County) and Roland (Pulaski County), Arkansas, died of natural causes in his beloved Portland on Friday, December 15, 2023. A native of McGehee, Arkansas, Tip was born to Mary Dean Naff and John Hampton Pugh on August 12, 1950, in Greenville, Mississippi.

He began his schooling at McGehee Elementary, continued his education at The Webb Academy in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, and completed his secondary education at Oxford Academy, then in Pleasantville, New Jersey.

He went on to study photography at the University of Louisiana Monroe (then Northeast Louisiana University), graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello with a degree in business, and completed his post-graduate education at the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

A retired banker and businessman, Tip was president, CEO and chairman of The People’s Bank of Portland; chairman of Mainline Bankshares of Portland; and on the board of directors of Bayou Grain of Parkdale, Arkansas. Tip was a lifetime member of Delta Waterfowl, an avid duck hunter at Cooper Lake Hunting Club in Lonoke County, Arkansas, and a graduate of the FBI Citizens Academy Program in Little Rock.

He also served on the Montrose (Arkansas) Academy school board, the Vera Lloyd Presbyterian Family Services Board of Directors in Monticello, Arkansas, the Vera Lloyd Foundation Board of Directors and the Vera Lloyd Director’s Council. He was a member of the Portland United Methodist Church and a former elder in the First Presbyterian Church of McGehee. 

He was preceded in death by his parents; his grandparents, Maude and Frank Pugh of Hamburg, and Dean Bain and Henry Naff of Portland; and two uncles, an aunt and an infant grandson.

Tip is survived by his doting wife of 52 years, Suzanne Russell Pugh; three children, Mary Anne Pugh of Little Rock, John T. Pugh Jr. and wife Julie C. Robbins of Little Rock, and Clarke Hampton Pugh and wife Leila of McGehee; and seven grandchildren, Luke and Landon Stallings, Elise and Lucy Pugh, and Annsley, Preston and Hampton Pugh. 

A memorial service to celebrate Tip’s life will be Saturday, January 6, 2024, at 2 p.m., at Portland United Methodist Church with Rev. Toby Austin officiating. A private committal of his ashes will be at a later date in the Hamburg Cemetery, where he will be interred alongside his parents.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to the Mary Dean Naff & John Tipton Pugh Sr. Endowment, ℅ Arkansas Children’s Foundation, 1 Children’s Way, Slot 661, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72202. 

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