The tuphrilt-Hills Colnhine

Back in the "horse and buggy days" in this country, every American boy was taught by his parents that he had to be active,. energetic, intelligent, dependable, useful, honorable, and courageous in all things, in order to make a success of life. This is a story of two men who started out in their business lives imbued with those old-fashioned notions, and who, by sticking to that philosophy through thirty years of close business association, have thoroughly a belief he has always entertained, namely, that it pays in every possible way and from every conceivable standpoint, to do business openly, honorably, generously, and with the other fellow's viewpoint always held in respect. Back these things up with high intelligence, a love of work and of the game itself, and a broad and helpful viewpoint of the world and mankind in general, and you have a mighty good picture of what makes Wend- proven beyond a doubt that such living DOES bring success; a very great and admirable success.

The two men are Maurice L. ("Duke") Euphrat, and Roy E. Hills, owners and co-operators of one of the biggest and most respected wholesale lumber concerns in all the nation-the Wendling-Nathan Company, of San Francisco. To say that it is one of the biggest concerns of its kind in existence, is praise indeed. But to say that it is one of the most RESPECTED of all such organizations is a compliment far greater. To win large success in a business enterprise, and at the same time achieve with it the respect, the regard, and the warm admiration of all their fellows in the same and allied lines, means that these two are indeed GREAT men, in the truest sense of that much-abused word. To write a little history of these welltried and well-proven men on the event of an important milestone in their business careers, is a profound pleasure to the guy who tickles these typewriter keys; first, because it is always a matter of deep satisfaction to recognize and publicize work well done; second, because it demonstrates ling-Nathan the much admired wholesale lumber concern that we see today. When you compliment these men you need hold no thought in reserve; you need cross no fingers. For they are v€rl, very genuine.

The Wendling-Nathan Company of .'Duke', Euphrat ahd Roy Hills celebrated its 30th birthday on Novemb er l7th, 1944. But these two men had been associated together a lot.longer than that. Let's start off with "D,uke,,, who is the older of the two. He is a native of San Francisco, and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in the class of 1898. He married Miss Grace Crow, a sister of the indomitable lumber journalist, Carl Crow, of Portland, Oregon, and they have two sons. ..Duke,, Junior is 19, and is a Corporal and musical technician in the Army, and has been 16 months overseas. The younger son, Paul, is 18, is in training in the Navy Air Force.

"Duke" Euphrat's first job was in lumber. He went to work in the big Fir jobbing yard of the Wendling Lumber Company at Sixth and Channel Streets in San Fran-

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(Continued from Page 52) cisco. Right across the street the Pacitic Lumber Company operated a Redwood distributing yard and remanufacturing plant. Here we find young Euphrat in 1904 when a youngster named Roy Hills came to work there as bookkeeper and cashier. Roy was born in Marengo, Illinois, and started business life as a bank bookkeeper. He came to California early in 1904, and while looking for a bank job went to work in the yard of the Cross Lumber Company. Then came an offer of a bank job, but the lumber bug had bitten him, and he stayed at the lumber yard. There were no union hours in those days. He loaded wagons from 7 to 9 mornings, then worked on the books until noon, worked in the yard through the afternoon, and finished the day's bookkeeping after supper at night. He learned what it meant to "burn the midnight oil." But Hills ancl one man did a business of $15,000 a month in that yard for some time.

Late in 1904 he went to San Francisco to take the job of bookkeeper and cashier for the Wendling Lumber Company, in whose wholesale yard "Duke" Euphrat was workirg. Little did these two think then how many ,years they would look at each other across a lumbei desk.

About this time the Pacific Lumber Company bought out Wendling's competitive yard across the street, and selling out the Fir, stocked it also with Redwood. Euphrat helped with this change, and became assistant yard man=ager for Pacific. In 1906 the Cross Lumber Company opened a distributing yard in San Francisco, and Euphrat went to work for them in charge of their city sales. But in lX)7 he went back to the Wendling Lumber Company where Roy Hills was no longer keeping books, but had become a lumber salesman. This company was succeeded by the Wendling-Nathan Company, .whose business spread to many territories besides California. In 1914 thig company was liquidated, and the owners retired.

Then Euphrat and Hills made arrangements to keep the iame, and they incorporated the Wendling-Nathan Company on November l7th, 1914, and started to build one of the biggest businesses and one of the finest reputations in the lumber industry. Thev have been at it ever since.

In 1915 Roy Hills married Miss Myrtle Little, of San Francisco, and they have one son, Lieut. Roy E. Hills, Jr., of the U. S. Navy. He is a graduate of Stanford lJniversity.

So here you have a skeleton history of Euphrat and Hill's Wendling-Nathan Company. How it grew, how it steadily but continually built for itself a great place in the business of lumber and shingle distribution on the Pacific Coast, and then spread to most other parts of the country, is a long, long story, but one well known to all the older members of the Coast lumber fraternity. They have offices in Portland and Los Angeles. In Southern California A.L. ("Gus") Iloover became their sales representative many long years ago, and gives them the same sort of representation in the South that Euphrat and Hills themselves maintained in the North; for Hoover is one of the most loved and respected men that the lumber business of Southern California has known.

They know the lumber industry of the Coast as completely as though they held it under a powerful magnifying glass. They learned all about the production end, who, where, and what the mills were, and could do. They learned the dealer's end of the game likewise. And so through the years they have maintained their enviable position in the trade. Their word was always good. Their promises were always reliable. Their contracts were always fulfilled. Moreover, they were helpful. Many a mill, both lumber and shingle in the Northwest, can tell of the service Wendling-Nathan has given them in the days when things were tough, and meeting payrolls was not as simple as today. And the dealers learned, also, that this concern was a dependable source of both information and supply, whose integrity was above question, and whose intelligence was high.

So the success of "Duke" Euphrat and Roy Hills was brought about in very simple fashion as you can plainly see. God gave them honesty, intelligence, and the love of work. They have done the best they could with their brains, worked hard and long, and tried to give everyone they did business with a square deal and the best possible service. It's a formula that will work anywhere, in any business.