THE TERRELL LUMBER CO.

WHOLESALE AND COMMISSION LUMBER

P. O. Box 516

Grants Pass, Oregon p/.t

Hearty congratulations to Jack Dionne and Staff of The Calilornia Lrmb"r Merchant on the attainment of their 25th Anniversdry/ Julv 1st, 1947 ward. He has no such time or inclination. Always he is rrusy at useful jobs largely of his own devising; "rrd ul*'uy. he gets them done in such fashion that the industry that knows hirn has come to expect such accomplishments. From the beginning of his working career he has been a "fool for work." Which is largely why he has come from a kid stenog rapher in a sarvmill office in Houston, Texas, to the Presidency of the California Redwood Association. He has hustled for what he got, ah,vays willing tq pay the price in energy and devotion for the chance to step a rung furtherup the ladder. He goes ahvays forward.

Let us take a brief look at his business career. He r.vas born on the Matador Ranch at Matador, Texas, on January l6th, 1893. He went through the 8th grade in school in Bowie, Texas, and then rvorked for a time rvith his father, learning the trade of watch repairing. Then l-re pushe<l lumber in a planing mill, trucked cement for a railroarl bridge gang, did a bit of carpenter rvork, and even kept books in a country bank. He denies that his services helpe.l the bank go broke, but the fact stands that the bank closecl up shop. \\/hen he u'as 18 years old he tried to learn something al;out office business in a business college in Houston. Texas, and here is rvhere he and the lumbdr industry got together for keeps.

The Carter Lumber Company, u'hich operated several East Texas sarn'rnills, sent over to the business college for a stenographer, and they sent our hero. He got the joll, and the lumber business has been stuck with him ever since. While in the Carter office he met two characters he has been friends with ever sin'ce. One was Harrv T. Kendall, norv Vice President and General Manager of the \\reyerhaeuser Sales Company, and the other was Jack Dionne, then ecliting a lumber journal and getting reacly to start THE, GUI-F COAST LUN{BERMAN. This was in 1911.

Then our budding lumbernran, nou, 19 years oi age, g()t a job with the I-ong-Bell Lumber Corr.rpany, and stayecl rvith that concern lrom l9l2 untll 1926. He u,ent to n.ork under a grand lumberman named Lloyd Chipman, and, as Kipling's hero "learned about women from her," Ken Smith learned about lunrber from Chipraan. This rvas a man ' rvhose chief aim in life seemed to l;e to help the worthy young men rvho rvorked under him. To Nlr., Chipman goes the eternal gratitude of Nlr.'Snrith for his unsellish help and teachings. He taught yorlng men to have confidence in themselves, to make decisions, in short, to become executives. And he built our young and green stenographer into a lumber exceutive, and then turned over to him executive duties to perform.

Smith sarv service at the mills in l-ouisiana, then in the general office in Kansas City, and then, as District Sales Manager he rvas located successivelv at Nevr. Orleans, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. He opened the tt'o latter offices, and then had charge of them.

Which brings us up to the good year 1927 u,hen he lett Long-8e11 and became Sales Manager in l-os Angeles for the E. K. Wood Lumber Company. The next thirteen years, as has already been related, he was with various lumber associations in and around Los Angeles. During this time many important tasks rvere given him as side .lines, and volunteer positions. One of those jobs was that of President of Associated Se,cretaries, in Los Angeles, in 1938, 1939, and 1940.

On July first, 1940, he was offered and accepted the office of President and General Manager of the California Redwood Association, with home offices in San Francisco. For seven years he has held that position in such manner is to win the approval and applause of the Redwood industry. It has been a job far removed from simply sitting in an office and compiling statistical reports about Redwood. It has been complicated by the longest labor strike in history; one that still goes on, and Mr. Smith has been spearheading the work of the Redwood mills in the handling of that very trying situation.

He has become more and lnore an evangelist-a crusader.. A splendid thinker and public speaker he has the faculty of throrving impressive facts and thoughts at his listeners, :rnd- his public speaking has covered a wide territory. No arm-lvaving orator this, but a man who clothes impressive thoughts in punchful and lasting words, ar-rd 'rvho invariablv leaves a deep impression upon his hearers. The rvriter of this piece has recently charged him with having become a 1>reacher, but Smith insists that he is not really a preacher, but rather a peddler of ideas. In that he is correct. He considers that the things he has been recently r.vriting and saying to the lumber industry and to business men of other lines, are at least as important as the rvork he has dor.re rvith his head and hands in his association activities.

He is a crusader u.ho believes implicity in the crnsade he leads. His recent hne of thought is that businessmen must accept the responsibility for doing the all-important job of re-educating Americans about rvhat makes their country tick. He thinks that if every lumberman u'ho attends a convention u'ould return to his home and start practicing, preaching, and putting into effect enlightened handling of human relations, it rvould do more good for all concerned than zrll the other things they could accomplish, put together. That the fate of this industry and this nation depends tremendonsly on better and more intelligent handling of human relations, is at present tl-re burden of the song of this strong man. And never forget that a strong man adds to the sum of human knorvledge, extends the horizon of human thought, releases souls from the Bastille of fear, gives nerv continents to the domain of intellect and ner'v constellations to the firmament of mind.

The rvriter, rvho has knowr"r 1-rim since boyhood, looks upon him as one of the great and valuable men who have come his rvay in life; a man of character, of honor, of courage, of devotion, and lvithal a man of high humor; who loves his friends, serves them, and has no other gods before them.

Smith, It is a privilege to walk by the side of Kenneth and all the other Kenneth Smiths of the world ; if indeed, there be others.

It is alone is subject ar-r ordering of God that character and character the basis of all true greatness. Which makes the of this sketch one of the truly great.