Mr. Wallace “Wali” Caradine

Pioneering Architect, Contractor & Business Leader | Class of 2019

Posthumous Inductee Wallace “Wali” Reed Caradine (1949-2017) was the first African American graduate from the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, after which he received further training at the Construction Management Institute in Dallas. During the course of his illustrious career, Wali Caradine made significant contributions to the fields of design and construction through his work with a firm in West Memphis and his own businesses, Design and Construction Associates, which became one of the largest minority-owned contracting firms in the state; Woods Caradine Architects; and Caradine Companies Architecture from 2007-2016. Caradine’s footprint can be seen in such impressive structures as The William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library, Verizon (formerly Alltel) Arena, the Arkansas Statehouse Convention Center expansion, multiple projects on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Little Rock Job Corps Campus, the University of Central Arkansas’ Greek Village, the Centre at University Park Adult Leisure Center, the Pathfinder Complex in Jacksonville, and countless other buildings. He was a mentor to several minority contractors in the Central Arkansas area, and as a tool to further his mentorship and to promote networking among local industry professionals, he founded the Arkansas Chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors in 1986. Wali was a husband to Dr. Delbra Caradine and father to a son, Reed Caradine, and a daughter, Ashley Caradine.