NEWSFEED

NEWSFEED PRICE KEPT EXPANDING HORIZONS

John Porter Price, a Price’s visionary thinking patent inventor of the did not stop there. He berotary drum debarker lieved the paper companies for debarking treelength would move from their own logs and who developed a chipping operations to outhighly successful business sourcing the wood yards and on the concept of starting up chips production, just as the and operating independent industry had shifted from chip mills to supply contract company logging crews to chips to paper companies, contractors. Price formed The died October 13 in Biloxi, Price Companies, Inc. and in Miss. He was 80. 1988 started up his first two The second son of Olyn Stephens and Helen Morri- John Porter Price, 1978 chip mill operations: Coastal Chips in Fernandina Beach, son Price, Price was born in Fla. as a supplier to ITT RayMonticello, Ark. His older Price drum debarker, 1988 onier, and Gloster Chips supbrother Ben taught him the plying James River in love of the outdoors and Gloster, Miss., the latter also hunting, hobbies that subse- where Price provided his first quently led him to the tim- rotary log crane. ber industry, following in The Price Companies ultithe footsteps of his father. mately became one of the

Price grew up working at largest chip producers in the his father’s transportable world. In 2007, Price retired, sawmill in the woods. After handing over the reins to his putting himself through col- right-hand man, Dick Carmilege at Arkansas A&M by cut- Price, left, and Dick Carmical at the cal. Price created a culture in ting pulpwood, Price served a grand opening of Gloster Chips in the company that still bears stint in the Air National Guard before returning home to work for L. D. Long, first as a log- into the drum debarker busiMississippi, 1988 Price formed Firehunt Duck Club in the 1960s. his name to always take care of the customer. Price went on his first duck ger and subsequently to build ness.” In 1981 he started up a tion, erection and installation hunt when he was 11 years a hardwood sawmill. Price drum debarker built mostly of chip mill equipment. He old and never lost the love of later purchased the sawmill in with parts Price fabricated formed Price Industries, Inc. seeing mallards land in the 1965 and started his own com- himself. The 9 ft. diameter by and sold his first drum de- green timber. In the 1960s, he pany at the age of 25 as J. P. 60 ft. long debarker operated barker in 1983. By the late formed Firehunt Duck Club, Price Lumber Company. with hydraulic drive and was 1980s he had sold 30 drum which is well known today

Price often commented that mounted on truck tires. The debarkers and related chip for its management programs although he had a college de- setup also enabled more effi- mill machinery. “We’ve made for wildlife and for always gree in forestry, he learned cient merchandising of the improvements to every one of leaving the land “better than more about the timber industry sawlog butts off larger pulp- them,” Price said, pointing to you found it.” He had an infrom watching and working wood logs. modifications to the bark credible sense of humor and for his father and L. D. Long, Always the entrepreneur, chute and infeed hopper and once he gave you a nickname, as well as working among the Price saw an opportunity to also building drums as large it would stick to you for life. loggers deep in the woods of market the design, fabrica- as 12x90 ft. He was a prolific reader of southeast Arkansas.

By the late 1970s, in addition to producing lumber he had pieced together a “It is an object of the invention to provide a method and apchip mill and become a paratus for continuously debarking treelength logs in a romajor chips supplier to the tating drum debarker, by continuously feeding groups of International Paper plant in Monticello. But as bark requirements became more setreelength logs generally axially into the drum with a continuously driven main conveyor, and along a low friction region vere, he realized conven- or auxiliary feed means between the discharge end of the tional debarking wasn’t main conveyor and the inlet of the drum.” going to do the job. Then, as Price said, “Necessity got us

books and a philosopher.

Carmical says that Price during his retirement continued reading, hunting, fishing. “He loved to travel. He would drive cross country listening to audio books to explore some old cavalry trail or some old historical point of interest,” Carmical says.

Carmical adds of Price, “Above all else he was a gentleman.” For those he mentored in his business life, they all say they are “standing on the shoulders of a giant.”

Price is preceded in death by his parents, Olyn and Helen Price; his brother, Dr. Ben Olyn Price; and a granddaughter, Savannah Ashley Dearman. Survivors include his beloved wife, Kay Reed Price, of Monticello, Ark.; his daughter, Mary Ashley Price, Biloxi, Miss.; one granddaughter, Alexandra Nicole Dearman, Barcelona, Spain; two step-daughters, Lauren Ashley Gober, Columbia, Mo., and Kallie Michelle Gober, Nevada, Mo.; and a step-grandson, Oakley James Gober, Nevada, Mo.

Memorials may be made to: Delta Waterfowl Foundation, 1412 Basin Ave.; Bismarck, ND 58504, 888-987-3795; or to: Children’s Hospital Foundation, Attn: Foundation Department, 1 Children’s Way, Little Rock, Ark. 72202.

RED THOMAS DIES AT 94

Harold Eugene (Red) Thom as, who was the pitchman behind the development of open web trusses and engineered wood I-joists and a cofounder of Trus Joist Corp., died August 21 in Boise, Id. He was 94.

The son of Ralph and Ruth

during this meeting that Troutner mentioned a new type of joist that he had invented, which he called “truss deck,” built with 1x6 tongue and groove boards for the chords and connected by steel rods. This was the beginning of a very unique partnership that would Red Thomas, left, and Art Troutner check out their wood I-joist. evolve into Trus Joist Corp. and Trus Joist International, a public Thomas, he was born in company whose annual sales Glenns Ferry, Idaho and grew would reach a billion dolup in Nampa and Boise dur- lars—and this after starting in ing the depression. At 11 1960 with $8,000, some mayears old he became deeply chinery and an old barn, and religious. Thomas graduated the idea that “we’ve got to from Nampa High School in have something better than a 1943 where he also met Phyl- 2-by-4,” Thomas recalled. lis Swayne who would be- “We created a whole new income his wife and companion dustry of laminated veneer for 68 years. They would lumber.” Thomas convinced have three sons. Troutner to make him the ex-

After one semester at the clusive marketing agent. University of Idaho, Thomas In 1960 they launched left school to join the Navy Truss Deck Corp. The first and received the WWII Vic- product used 2x4 machine tory Medal. He went to Me- stress rated wood chords and teorology School and was the tubular steel webbing. It stationed at Sandpoint Naval was adopted for commercial Air Station in Seattle. His construction projects ranging contribution to the war effort from office complexes, was to collect weather data restaurants and convenience for ships and planes, which stores to apartments and meant flying out to sea on warehouses. blimps to report the weather. Throughout the 1960s the

Thomas graduated with a company developed a family degree in forestry from the of trusses for the light comUniversity of Idaho in 1951. mercial market. In 1969 they He sold lumber for a compa- produced the wood I-joist with ny in Minneapolis and devel- 2x3 or 2x4 flanges and plyoped a love for the lumber wood as the web. Thomas and industry and made it his goal Troutner had always been conto become proficient in every cerned about wasted wood aspect of the business. His from their production, espemotto was to make a deci- cially as access to high quality sion about what you want to timber resource began to dedo then learn everything you cline due to the environmental could to make it succeed. movement. Then in the early

In 1956 he was selling 1970s they developed a lamilumber for several wholesale nated veneer lumber product lumber companies when he called Micro=Lam for use in met Art Troutner, a well headers and beams and as the known area architect in Boise flange for the I-joist. Ultimatewho had use curved laminat- ly the company introduced ed beams in the design of the LVL flanges with OSB webs. Boise Little Theater. It was As Truss Deck grew,

Thomas and Troutner began franchising and in 1969 the company merged its franchise operations into one company called Trus Joist Corp. In 1990 Trus Joist entered into a joint venture with MacMillan Bloe del as Trus Joist MacMillan.

In January 2000 Weyerhaeuser purchased Trus Joist International for $720 million. Nearly 10 years later, in 2009, Thomas was an investor when Atlas Holdings LLC, in partnership with a group of former leaders of Trus Joist Corp., bought the Trus Joist Commercial business back from Weyerhaeuser. They named it RedBuilt in honor of Red Thomas. RedBuilt remains a significant producer and distributor of engineered wood products to this day. Troutner had died in 2001. RedBuilt released a statement upon the death of Thomas: “As co-founder of Trus Joist and RedBuilt’s namesake, Harold’s business values of respect for the associates, great customer service, and strong communities, along with his passion for a better way to build, are at the core of who RedBuilt is today. From all of us, ‘Thank you, Harold, you will be missed.’”

Thomas loved to fly and was a skilled instrument pilot with more than 10,000 hours logged. He owned many airplanes and used them in business, adventure and philanthropy. Thomas established a Foundation for the purpose of helping Christian organizations. Thomas was preceded in death by his parents and his wife. He is survived by three sons and an extended family including two great, great grandsons.

TIMBERLAND FIRM PLANS SAWMILL

Mission Forest Products, a subsidiary of Timberland Investment Resources, LLC, plans to build a sawmill in Corinth, Miss., costing $160 million and creating 130 jobs at the mill and providing economic and employment opportunities for forest products firms and workers based in north Mississippi.

Mission Forest Products, which expects to be operational by 2022, will be capable of producing 250MMBF annually. The state-of-the-art pine sawmill will be financed through capital provided by investors that TIR represents.

“Our objective is for this mill to become one of the lowest-cost and most reliable suppliers of high-quality dimensional lumber products in North America,” says TIR Managing Director Christopher Mathis. “We intend to do this by capitalizing on three things—the abundance of high-quality timber in the area, Corinth’s proximity to the growing housing markets of the U.S. South and lower Midwest, and the lowcost, high-efficiency nature of the mill’s design.”

Mathis says the project has received tremendous support from Governor Reeves and the Mississippi Development Authority; The Alliance of Corinth, including President Clayton Stanley; Alcorn County Board of Supervisors; city of Corinth and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

TIR decided to locate the mill in Corinth due to the rail and road access it offers to growing population centers like Memphis, Nashville, Birmingham and the lower U.S. Midwest—all areas where lumber demand is high and is projected to increase in the future due to commercial and population expansion.

In addition, the area surrounding Corinth, which sits where the state lines of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi intersect, also is a prime timber-growing region that currently is underserved with sawmilling capacity de-

spite the plentiful inventory of high-quality timber that is growing in its vast forestlands, which are generally owned by local families and large institutional investors, such as those TIR represents.

TIR also was attracted to the Corinth area because it has a skilled forest products workforce—one that includes well-trained and highly experienced mill workers and other forest products professionals like loggers, truckers and silvicultural contractors.

“Agriculture is Missis sippi’s top economic driver, and our abundance of forestland—nearly 20 million acres statewide—provides tremendous opportunities for economic growth and job creation in this vital sector,” comments Governor Tate Reeves. “I am honored to welcome Mission Forest Products to our state and look forward to the economic ripple effect the opening of this state-of-the-art sawmill will have on the the local economy of Alcorn County, and all of Mississippi.”

Mississippi Development Authority is providing assistance for infrastructure improvements. The company also qualifies for the Advantage Jobs Rebate Program, which provides a rebate to eligible businesses that create new jobs exceeding the average annual wage of the state or county in which the company locates or expands. Alcorn County and the city of Corinth are providing grant funds and in-kind assistance for infrastructure improvements.

NEIMAN PURCHASES GILCHRIST MILL

Interfor Corp. is selling its sawmill in Gilchrist, Ore. to Neiman Enterprises Inc. The Gilchrist sawmill, which specializes in ponderosa and lodgepole pine boards, has been curtailed since mid-June of this year due to COVID-19 related economic factors. Prior to its curtailment, the mill produced approximately 80MMBF per year and employed 150. Neiman, based in Hulett, Wyo., is a privately held, third-generation family business with pine board sawmill operations in Wyoming and South Dakota and a stud mill in Colorado. Neiman intends to restart the mill in the near future and rehire a substantial number of the furloughed employees. Neiman will also consider capital investment opportunities for the facility.

“This transaction represents a significant step for the Neiman group of companies,” says Jim Neiman, President and CEO of Neiman Enterprises Inc. “We look forward to restarting the mill in short order and partnering with the employees and community to ensure the long-term success of this historic operation.”

VICKSBURG MILL CONTINUES GROWTH

Vicksburg Forest Products is investing $40 million in a saw line and drying technologies as it expands its lumber mill operations in Vicksburg, Miss. The project is expected to create 60 jobs.

“We look forward to working with the local economic community and the state of Mississippi to support further investment in our facility and the surrounding area,” comments Vicksburg Forest Products Manager Billy Van Devender.

In 2018, Vicksburg Forest Products, which is headquartered in Jackson, purchased the Vicksburg sawmill. The facility underwent a largescale transformation and is currently producing 75MMBF of SYP lumber annually. Post expansion, Vicksburg Forest Products will be capable of producing 180MMBF.