Robbie Wills
| Robbie Wills | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from the 46th district |
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In office 2001–2011 |
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| Speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives | |
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In office 2009–2011 |
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| Preceded by | Benny Petrus |
| Succeeded by | Robert S. Moore, Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
May 27, 1968 Conway, Arkansas |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Profession | attorney |
Robert D. "Robbie" Wills, Jr. (born May 27, 1968) is an American attorney and former politician residing in Conway, Arkansas. He is the former Speaker of the House of the Arkansas House of Representatives and former State Representative representing House District 46 (as constituted from 2001-2011), which consisted of the western half of the City of Conway and a section of rural Western Faulkner County, Arkansas. Wills was sworn in as Speaker of the House of the 87th General Assembly on January 12, 2009. Wills was named to the Arkansas Business Power List in 2008 and the Arkansas Business 40 Under 40, also in 2008. Wills was elected as a Democrat. Wills was first elected in 2004 and was reelected without opposition in 2006 and 2008.
Wills was born on May 27, 1968 in Conway, Arkansas and attended Conway Public Schools. His parents, Robert and Lou Jane Adams Wills, are retired long-time school teachers. As a child, Wills and his family lived at Pickles Gap Creek Crafts Village, a local tourist attraction two miles North of Conway founded by his grandparents, Jean "Momma Jean" Alley Adams and "Poppa" Wilburn C. Adams. Pickles Gap was known regionally as the "Home of the Do-Nothing," after a novelty item manufactured and sold at Pickles Gap. The Wills family moved into Conway when Robbie was 10 years old.
After graduating Conway High School in 1986, Wills enrolled at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, receiving an ACT scholarship. After his freshman year, in the summer of 1987, Wills briefly relocated to Los Angeles, California with his band, the late 1980s hair-metal group "Crimson Tear," to pursue opportunities in the music business. The trip was ultimately unsuccessful and Wills returned home to Conway. Unfortunately, he returned too late to enroll in the fall semester at U.C.A. and therefore forfeited his scholarship. Wills has cited this as a turning point in his life, after which he applied himself to school and leadership. (Wills' early interest in music continued. He self-recorded and released several original compilations including Demonstration (1995) Tucker Creek (1998) The Very Best (2002) and 45 (2013)). Wills also tried his hand at stand-up comedy, performing at fraternity "Comedy Nights" and at a local comedy club ("Teleplex"), and for two years hosted a late night comedy-variety show on local community-access cable television ("Conway After Hours," circa 1988-89). Wills was a founding member and local president of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity at U.C.A. (Arkansas Zeta Chapter) and later worked as a regional director for the national office of Sig Ep, based in Richmond, Virginia.
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