Darwin Deason

Colossians 3:23 commands us: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart…”

Few men have embodied this scripture more completely than Darwin Deason. He passed peacefully Tuesday, December 2, 2025, having lived a full and inspiring life. He leaves an immense legacy through the lives he touched, the companies he built, and the standard of excellence he set as he embodied the American dream.

Born in Rogers, Arkansas in 1940 -- on the dirt floor of the original Deason homestead at the end of the Great Depression -- he came from a family that prized faith, grit, and hard work. His Scotch-Irish ancestors moved west after fighting in the American Revolution, and the family still holds the record of payment in silver for their service. From that humble soil came a man who would one day build an international company employing more than 85,000 people.

Darwin graduated from Rogers High School in 1958. He then moved to Tulsa and began working at Gulf Oil as a mail clerk and moved quickly into data processing, an unassuming start to what would become one of the great American entrepreneurial stories. All of this was achieved with no formal education beyond high school.

In 1968, Darwin moved to Dallas to join a small startup data-processing company that would become MTech and, at just age 29, was promoted to CEO. He eventually built MTech into a successful subsidiary of MBank and took it public. Later, while attempting to take MTech back private, EDS snapped-up the company -- becoming his first major liquidity event. That acquisition was the catalyst for what became a pattern: Darwin built companies others wanted to invest in and own.

His greatest contribution to the world of technology began in 1988 with the founding of Affiliated Computer Services (ACS). ACS would become the platform through which Darwin executed one of the most aggressive and successful acquisition strategies in American business -- ultimately buying and selling over 300 companies and becoming a world-class professional services powerhouse.

Long before it became common practice, Darwin recognized the power of modern business process innovation and helped redefine how companies manage their essential operations.

ACS became one of the nation’s first companies to specialize in modernizing back-office operations for other companies, improving performance, and allowing its clients to focus on core businesses and what they did best. ACS served clients ranging from E-ZPass and 7-Eleven to UPS, the City of Dallas, and major state and federal agencies.

He served as CEO, Chairman, and strategist-in-chief. ACS went public in 1994 and grew to be a global operation and a Fortune 500 Company.

After ACS, Darwin continued building -- because building was his nature. He became Chairman of Deason Capital Services (DCS) and the Deason Foundation, which supports Christian ministries, criminal justice reform, education reform, medical research, and free enterprise across the country. The Foundation’s ethos is to support programs that empower the poor to lift themselves from poverty.

His motto, the one by which he lived and built, was a single word: Hustle. The word hustle isn’t in the Bible, but Darwin fully embraced Colossians 3:23 which commands “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart…”

He compiled a book of his favorite inspirational quotes -- Hustle: The Most Important Word in the English Language -- and distributed thousands of copies to employees, executives, clients, friends, strangers on airplanes, and even people he met in elevators. Every desk in his company had a “Hustle Card” on it. Darwin didn’t just preach this philosophy; he lived it from the moment he woke at 4:30 a.m. until the moment he slept -- usually after midnight.

Darwin was a builder in the fullest sense of the word. He was an early supporter of President Donald J. Trump, whom he admired for his similar instinct. Darwin built companies, and he also built homes -- astonishing homes. He created two of the most spectacular residential properties on the West Coast of North America, architectural works of art that reflected both his ambition and his imagination.

Through every success, Darwin remained defined by work, not wealth. No one handed him a thing. Other nations struggle to understand how America produces men like him. Darwin was forged in hard-work and the soil of his birth, raised with the certainty that effort was the only currency that mattered, driven by a belief that excuses were simply obstacles waiting to be overcome.

His greatest legacy is his family: loving sons and daughter, and grandchildren who live their lives with purpose and mission, deeply engaged in causes aligned with their beliefs about personal responsibility, opportunity, and America’s future.

Darwin is survived by his son, Douglas Reese Deason (Jacki), and daughter, Sterling Deason O’Donnell (Jody); daughter-in-law, Jill Deason; grandsons Preston Deason (Rachel), Caleb and Aidan Deason, and Drake O’Donnell; granddaughters Regan Deason (Trevor Schmidt), Madison, Hannah, Emily Deason, and Reese O’Donnell; his brother, Dale Deason of Huntsville, AL; his sister, Donne Sue Buck of Elm Springs, Arkansas; and many nieces, nephews, friends, and loyal colleagues. He remained close friends with the mothers of his children, Bonnie Hardy Deason of Rogers, Arkansas and Patricia Blackwell Deason of Dallas. He was preceded in death by his parents, Maurice and Letha Dell Deason, his son, David Earl Deason, and his sister, Nancy Deason Jenkins.

Darwin Deason lived the American story -- not the easy version, but the real one: From a dirt-floor home to a 205-foot yacht he affectionately indulged with “absolutely foolish money.” From a mailroom to the world’s boardrooms, from homestead fields to the heights of American enterprise -- Darwin’s life was a testament to hustle, heart, and the refusal to ever quit.

Men like Darwin Deason made America great. They remind us that greatness is still possible -- if we hustle.

As Darwin requested, the family will hold a small private ceremony honoring his life. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Deason Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the Dedman Law School at SMU (www.smu.edu, click on giving and reference the Deason CJR Center/Darwin Deason). The Deason Foundation will match all grants made in Darwin’s name.