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The sub j ect of this sketch, W. A. (Bill) Constans, is one of the best knorvn executives in the lumber industry. He is vice president.and general manager of Anglo California Lumber Company, Los Angeles. He has had an active, colorful and interesting career and is looking forward to many more years in his favorite and only business-the lumber business.

IIe was born in Blue Earth, Minnesota, a town founded by his grandfather, H. P. Constans, (who was not a lumberman but had to engage in logging to clear the townsite). His father, G. F. Conbtans, was a retail lumberman for 5O years, as manag'er of F. Weyerhaeuser Company's retail yards.

Young Bill worked in retail yards in school vacatiotrs, was graduated from Carleton College, Northfield, Minn', and immediately entered the retail lumber business' He spent a year at this work and was then for a time lumber inspector for the Government at Funston and Fort Riley, Kansas.

He enlisted with the U. S. Army Engineers in November, lglT,andthe ship he sailed on, the Tuscania, was torpedoed by a German submarine. He was picked up by a lifeboat, taken aboard a British warship and landed at Londonderry, Northern Ireland. After seeing considerable service he was mustered out in June, 1919.

He came West to Coeur d'Alene, fdaho, and went to work with the Edward Rutledge Timber Company, a Weyerhaeuser mill, in 1919. He loaded cars, graded, was timekeeper, and later started the retail department. Equipped with this varied experience he went on the road selling for

Weyerhaeuser Sales Company, with his headquarters at Alexandria, Minn., and was so successful that in l9Z2 he was promoted to the job of assistant sales manager. He was made sales manager in 1923 and held this position until l9D when he moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon, as sales manager of the big sawmill of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company. He remained in this important position until he resigned in August, 1943, to come to California as vice president and general manager of Anglo California Lumber Company. At Klamath Falls he was also managing director of Kalpine Plywood Company.

Mr. Constans gave a great deal of his spare time during the years he spent at Klamath Falls to work for the welfare of boys. He was president of the Boy Scouts, Modoc Council, and was given the Silver Beaver Award for his fine work for this organization. He was president of the Klamath Falls Lions Club, president of the Shrine Club and the Royal Order of Jesters (a Shrine activity). I{e was also president of the GolI Club and Quarter back Club, and is now president of the Tuscania Survivors' Club.

Recently he was honored by being elected Commander of Lumbermen's Post No. 403 of the American Legion, Los Angeles.

Mr. Constans was married in 1919 to Miss Margaret Freer. They have three children. The eldest, Margaret, is Mrs. R. W. T oft, whose husband, a navigator in the U. S. Army Air Force completed his missions over Germany and is now an instructor in navigation at Charleston, S. C. One son, W. F. Constans, is in the U. S. Navy, somewhere in the South Pacific, and the younger son, Dale, is a student at Pasadena Junior College.

U. S. Construction in July

Total new construction put in place in the United States during July amounted to $320,m0,000, a decline of 53 per cent from July,1943, according to figures released by WPB, August 14.

Of this amount, $193,m0,000 fell in the category of publicly financed construction and $127,000,000 for private account, WPB said.

Henry S. Graves Awarded Forestry Medal

Washington, D. C., August 2.-Henry S. Graves, New Ilaven, Conn., dean emeritus of the School of Forestry, Yale University, was awarded the Sir William Schlich forestry medal for distinguished service to American forestry at a meeting of the lVashington Section, Society of American Foresters, held in the Cosmos Club, Washington, D. C., on the evening of August 1.

This medal was named in honor of the late Sir William Schlich (1840-1925), who established the forest service in India and was professor of forestry at Oxford University. In order to perpetuate his memory a fund was subscribed by his friends and admirers in the British Empire and the United States.

The medal has been awarded only twice before in the United States. It was bestowed in 1935 on President Roosevelt, an honorary member of the Society of American Foresters, for his leadership in the forest conservation movement. It was not awarded again until 1940 when it was presented to Gifford Pinchot, first president and Fellow of the Society, and first chief of the U. S. Forest Service, at the Society's 40th anniversary meeting held in Washington.

Until his retirement in 1939, Dean Graves had been head of the Yale School of Forestry since 192O. He was chiei of the U. S. Forest Service from 1910 to 1920. In 1918 he was commanding officer (colonel) of the Allied forest engineer regiments in France and Belgium. At present he is chairman of the subcommittee on forestry and forest products of the United Nations Interim Comtnission on Food and Agriculture.

Smcll Mill Operctors Should Consult WPB Lumber Adviser

Operators of small sawmills who are not receivir.rg sufficient orders to ,consume their entire output of lumber' should consult the nearest lumber adviser of the War Production Board, J. Philip Boyd, Director of WPB's Lumber and Lumber Products Division, said recently in a letter to all small mill owners.

The lumber control order, L-335, does not change the small mills' methods of selling to any great extent, he pointed out, nor the types of customers served.

The demand for lumber needed for war and essential civilian uses exceeds supply, and it is imperative that every mill, large and small, should maintain capacity production, Mr. Boyd said.

Mills cutting less than 5,000 board feet per day are g'erierally considered small. They number about 22,0N and produce about 1B per cent of all commercial lumber in the United States.

Returns to Wqsco

A. G. Woodhouse, who formerly operated the A. G. Woodhouse Building Supply in Wasco and sold the business some time ago to Houts & Box Lumber Co., has again purchased the business and will operate it as before.