LAT convention back home in San Antonio, Tx.

ll ANY MORI'- snriles graced the lUl laces of' clealcrs and exhibitors alike as the Lunrber Association of Texas stagecl its l0-5th annual convention amiclst a stcaclily inrproving econonry in the Lone Star State.

"Business is definitcly betternot great. nrind you. but firr aheacl of' where it was one or esr.lcciallv two years ago," noted one Tcxas dealer. sunrming up the consensus. Wholesalers and clistributors voicccl sinrilar sentinrents.

After last year's thinly attenclecl convention in Corpus Christi. this year's return to popular San Antonio was well received. LAT execLrtive v.p. Ilarbara Douglas said the nrove was "Dermanent" anci that San .\ntonio uould be the eonvention site fbr the foreseeable f uture.

Lunrbernran of' the Year honors wcnt to Ike E.pstein, the dynantic Lareclo. Tx.. lunrberman known to his rctail custonrers as "Dr. Ike." the man who can repair anything out of'his three block long store. A sec-

FAMIIY FUtl at LAT's expo: lll Chris Coplan, T.R. Eingham, Mark Coplan, Karisa Coplan (f ront), Virginia Bingham, Mike & Karen Coplan. (21 Charlie Horton, Harris Kimbell. l3l Melvin Allen, George Vaughan. [4] Chrissy & Tom Hanover. l5l Patrick Mc0ablin, Steve Rountree, Pat Simpson. 16l Bill Welton, Janet Matatall. l7l Ken Johnson, Tammie & Craig ond generation in the business, Epstein has noted his parents got started peddling lumber from a horse drawn cart.

Jeff Chapman, executive vice president of Woodson Lumber, Caldwell, was elected president of the LAT. Dick Ledermann is lst v.p.. Parker Beebe, 2nd v.p.; Lonnie Goolsby, sec.l Dan Guerra, treas., and Melvin Faircloth, sgt. at arms. Robert L. Harrison was awarded the LAT associate member representative of the year honors.

In the exhibit hall at the conven-

Blakemore. [8] Robert Leisner, Hal Winfrev. l9l Maydale & Larry Foust. ll 0l Gayle Tipton, Debbie Wenzel. {lll Sam Curry, Joe Cornett, Carl McConnell, Jack Moran. Il2l Finn Hurley, George Schmidbauer, Art Patterson. ll3l David Ford, Beryl

Story at a Glance

Better business brings smiles

.lke Epstein named Man of the Year. . Jetf Chapman new prcs. ident. more vendors at this year's show, which was cutfrom thrce to two days. '92 expo: April3GMay 2 tion nearly 250 vendors displayed wares and services, more than had exhibited last year. Of a total convention attendance of just over 2025, about 1200 were exhibitors, about 600 dealers and spouses, with the remainder falling into that old favorite category: other. Show sales were nearly $l million.

An overwhelmingly popular format change this year was reducing the number of exhibit days from

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