THE CAREER OF ED FOUNTAIN, SR. A half century of invention and innovation

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I Hene aren't many men who can look back over fifty productive years in business and far fewer who can reflect upon a series of innovations and inventions, More select yet are men like Ed Fountain of the Ed Fountain Lumber Co. who are still active on a daily basis. And we do mean active.

A recent visitor to their eight acre yard in Los Angeles was directed to a far corner of the yard. Characteristically, Ed was working with the crew trying to iron out a production problem with some reluctant machinery.

Initiative and problem solving are part and parcel of the man. In the late 1950s when they found they had down time with the glue crews that operated their laminating plant, Ed began to cast around for something to fill the gap. The result was the eventual development of the firm's specialty product Lam Loc Pecky Cedar paneling. It also resulted in the granting of a U.S. government patent to Ed Fountain, one of the few ever given for a lumber product.

At that time, about the only use for the pecky cedar was for tlrkey shades out in the desert. The rest was "junk" and was burned. But to a man with an inventive mind this was a situation that called for a better solution than chucking the cedar boards into the fire.

The product that Fountain developed by laminating the pecky cedar to a backing also of incense cedar, produced a distinctive product that transformed those pecky cedar holes into something with character.

Story qt cl Glonce

A profile of one of The West's most innovotive wholesolers . Ed Fountoin, Sr.'s remorkoble coreer of turning problems into opportunities . ond how down time resulted in the gronting of one of the few potenls for o lumber product.

But the world did not exactly beat a path to the door to buy them so they went to work with a promotional efiort at the consumer and specifier level that eventually cost in excess of $200,000. The efiort was fruitful, though, and Lam Loc Pecky Cedar paneling is now an established and widely recognized product.

Beginning Years

Ed began his long career in the lumber business as a boy, working in the woods of western Canada, a formative part of his life that lasted five years.

In 1922 (the same year The Merchant Magazine was founded, incidentally) he took a "temporary" job typing at the old Consolidated Lumber Co. in Wilmington, Ca. He began to move up in the organization and for the last 8 of the 13 years he worked for Consolidated he was sales manager. [t was hardly an enviable position in the Depression, but his initiative and hard work helped the venerable firm to survive that period.

Recalling those days, he remembers that the dominant person at that time was "Hal" Baly, whom he describes as the "boss, teacher and strict task master." Amazingly enough, Baly, now in his nineties, still goes in every day to his son.in-law's lumber yard, Colonial Lum. ber Co. in San Mateo, Ca.

In 1936 a long waterfront strike had depleted lumber stocks, so they took the initiative and trucked in the first green white fir. Moving quickly, Fountain built his own home of white fir and had it completed before the Pasadena Building Department had a chance to declare it illegal. It was a beginning step for the so-called 'oweed species," such as hemlock, lodge pole pine and others, in their long battle for recognition.

In 1937, during what is now euphemistically called a "recession," Fountain took the plunge and began his own business with the modest sum of $f500. Survival was an iffv thing, especially for new firms, bui Ed managed to end that first year with a $1200 profit

Many of the changes in the business during those years resulted from problems to be solved. He remembers that a lVashington State hardwood mill ran into a slow time in the furniture business and asked if second growth Douglas fir 2x4-B could be sold. With so much fine old growth available, no one would consider buying second growth. "Remembering all too well the contractors' extreme desire to save money, we suggested it might work if the mill would precision end trim to save labor on the job. It worked and we believe the 'stud' business developed from this 'first'."

Federat Hasstes

Federal government price regulations following World Var II made it impossible for a wholesaler to operate legally, Fountain notes. The OPA law provided no profit margin for wholesalers or middlemen. Rather than violate an impossible federal law, Fountain decided to cope differently than many in the industry and in 1946 planned on building a sawmill and bought a tract of timber back of Eureka, Ca., on the Van Dusen River.

Before the mill could be constructed, the government finally perceived the truth about their OPA regulations and cancelled them. This also resulted in ending Fountain's plans for a mill, but he kept the timberlands and is now operating them as a tree farm.

It was in l95l that they entered the laminating business, encouraged by the shortage of big, good long timbers. It was a pioneering effort; there were only six laminating firms in the U.S. and only two others in the West.

A great deal of promotional effort was required by the firms involved and their association, The American Institute of Timber Construction. Fountain served as AITC president in 1966 and was a director for many years. It was during this early period with the laminating plant that the Lam Loc Pecky Cedar paneling mentioned above was developed.

Ed Fountain has high praise for the caliber of rhen and women that he has known and worked with during his more than a half-century in the business. ooour company survived because of them,o' he states flatly, noting the tendency employees have to stay with his firm. AI Young, his lst employee in 1937 is still with him and Rex Warkentine, who joined after World War II, is a part of the company today.

One who stands out in Ed Fountain's mind is the late Doyle Bader, who was a partner for 15 years and whose son, Frank Bader, is now general manager.

Friendly competitors who allowed him to work out of their inventories before he had one of his own include Don Philips, Sr., Art Penberthy, Sr. and Mike Crook. Fountain is not a man to forget a favor.

Middte Men

He observes that as middle men, the life blood of their business has been the retailers and the sawmill operators. "The ones that survived competition," he notes, ttwere in nearly every instance, sound and capable men with whom it is a pleasure to do business.'n

Flanked by his many friends and business associates and backed up by his son, Edo Jr., he "hopes to carry on indefinitely in the orderly distribution of lumber." And we'll bet that he doesn you can't help but go with a winner.