ltrA lE, nevsanawews

by BOB McBRIEN execulive vice president of the [umber Merchonts Associqtion of Norlhern Colifornio

TT'S THAT TIME of the year again. When mothers smilingly f op"n the door, hand Junior his lunch box and books . and then sit back with a second cup of coffee to wonder where the summer has gone. *,t

While we have no bells to toll, the Lumber Merchants Association of Northern California is once again summoning top retail dealers, manufacturers and suppliers to its second annual Top Management Seminar. This year it will be held at Asi' lomar, the beautiful state park beach at Pacific Grove, Calif. And we are looking for a turnout oI more than 100 persons.

BACK T0 school time for both the kiddies and Education committee co-chairmen Ar' irriii udaier poppll, wrro thur E. Masters and Duane Bennett have will go to LMA's Top put together an excellent program. Believe Management Seminar. benent euery deater,#fi}r J H ness'etc'

Elsewhere in this issue of The Merchant you will find a rundown on the speakers and the subjects they will present at Asilomar. Each of these men is a top-flight instructor as well as a top-flight businessman who knows whereof he speaks. And each is interested in seeing you improve your business and profit Picture' * * *

For the first time, suppliers and manufacturers are being invited to attend and participate in the Top Management Seminar. We believe this broadening of communications makes great sense , . . as well as being imperative to our entire industry.

Many manufacturers nui" "ol-""lu ,o me and members of our board of directors that our annual convention and educational programs are of considerable interest to them as suppliers. These men know that today's market involves many changes, ideas that wouldn't have been considered a few short years ago. They want to be aware of the new problems confronting dealers as well as what the dealer plans to do about solving the problems.

The Top Management Seminar holds many answers. And we invite you to partake of them. If you haven't signed up for Asilomar, call me and we'll make the neccssary arrangements.

Plywood Roof Decking Gets OK

Another major building code has accepted 1t7"r' thick 2.4.1 plywood as a roof decking material for heavy timber construction. It will be included in the National Building Code of the American Insurance Association.

The application has passed Underwriters' Laboratory fire tests which showed that it provided the same performance as nominal 2" tongue-and-groove lumber decking.

Earlier recognition o{ 2.4.1 plywood in economical heavy tim. ber applications was granted in the Uniform Building Code of the International Conference of Building Officials and the Basic Buildine Code of the Buildine Officials Conference of America.

OLD.GROMH BAND.SAWN REIIW(lllD from Bojock Lumber Co., Manchester

OLD.GROMH DIIUGTAS FIR from Spacek Bros. Lumber Co., Manchester

Precision-trimmed STUII$Oouglas Fir o White Fir o Redwood AIR-DRIED and KILN-DRIED RElllI0(lD P0$S and FENCIIIG

LGL Yard-Gustom Milling Facilities

Direct Shipments via rail, water, truck & trailer

Operating Alex H. Christie sawmill, Arcata, Calif., Phone Phil Kelty, (714) VA 2-2304

Hawthorne, Calif. (San Diego freeway at Rosecrans off-ramp)

Telephone: (area code 213) 0Sborne 6-2261 . SPring 2-5258

Bob Halbert . Sully Sullivan . Lyn Vinum . Freeman Campbell

NAWTA Pocific Northwest Meeting

National-American Vholesale Lumber Association will hold a major regional meeting in the Pacific Northwest at Salishan Lodge on the Oregon Coast. Septemher 25-2(t" Al{red D. Bell. Jr.. NAWI-A president has announced.

Included will be group discussions oI wholesaler-customer communications, communications with supplicr, salesmen compensation. individual company public relations and more effective use of thc telephone.

Bell indicated the two-dav format was scheduled to allow more tim. for expression o{ inditidual views by member firms and suppliers and to provide greater opportunity for informal discussion €rroups.

Yord Fire Costs $3OO,OOO

Flames swept through a Porterville lumber and materials firm last month. r'irtually destroying buildings and u'ares, according to Larry Hodgson, Porterville Lumber & Materials official. Total damaee was estimated to he a whopping $3OO.bOO.

The fire, of undetermined origin. completely leveled the firm's main buildings but spared accounts receivables totalling $120,000. The company haS been in business in Porterville since 1939.

Inventory loss is said to be in ercess of

$f00.000, while the cost of replacing structures would total nearly $200,000, officials rcported.

Orvner Earl Hodgson, who operates the company with his son. Larry, said the firm prohabll rrould so lrack into business. The compar)\' htrs been in business since 1920, the elder Hodgson said. The yard then was lor:ated on l- Street in an area that now is residential. Present site is at 615 North Main Street. The firm has been incorporated since 19{9. Hodgson said.

New Socromenlo IMA Member

Membership chairman Charles Cross, Sr., has been most active of late spreading the good word about LMA. He recently called on seven dealers in the Sacramento area and signed up Birdwell Lumber Co. which will be representcd by James P. Birdwell.

Bold Plon for Finoncing

James R. Turnbull, of the American Plywood Association, has urged the industry's endorsement of a proposal which c'ould pump significant amounts of money into the a{llicted home building industry.

The plan is for industries connected with home building to deposit available corporate cash reserves into savings and loan associations. qualified savings banks and other institutions that finance home buildine.

Turnbull says he will urge APA's finance r:ommittee to consider an immediate transfer o{ part of its reservt' funds.

Tollest Tree fqkes Bow {Bough?)

A redwood tree iJ(r9.2 feet tall stands right beside a much-used nature trail in b-oundt:rs' Cror,e south of Scotia. University of California l'orester Paul J. Zinke reports.

Thr: tree, measured by surveyors as part of a UC School of Forestry and S ildland Ilesearch Center study of redwood ecology. is a foot and half taller than the one previously hailed as the world's tallest-known tree. That was the Libby tree on Redwood Creek. near Orick, measured at 367.8 feet.

Corlow Co. First Western Member

The Carlow Co. recently became the first rvest coast member of the National Sash & Door Jobbers Association, according to Jack Carlow, president of the firm. Carlow Co. operates warehouses in Los Angeles, Colton, El Monte and Pacoima, Calif.

NS&DJA cqnsists of some 275 millwork and building products distribution centers in 116 states organized to promote the use of stock woodwork and related buildins prodrrt'ts through retail dealers.

Poul McCusker-Lumbermon

We recently received an always welcome call from Paul McCusker, one of the few remaining pillars of San Francisco:s once huge wholesale lumber fraternity, and were pleased to learn that he has relocated his offices just across the street from the old fI Drumm Bldg., at 24 California St.

While most of the Bav Area wholesalers have long since fled ihe congestion of downtown San Francisco, Paul McCusker sems to thrive on it. He was born in 1903, the son of a plumbing, heating and sheet metal contractor. He was a little too young to remember the '06 quake and fire, but his father was a busy man in the ensuing months, helping rebuild the ruined city.

Anyone who has met Pard has to be impressed with his size, both physical and in heart, so it comes as no surprise to us that he began his lumber career in l9I7 in a logging camp at Teino, Washington. Paul Iater spent several years working in logging camps at Maytown, Washington, and Grays Harbor and for Clemens l,oggrng Co. and Anderson & Middleton.

During the mid-20's Paul gravitated to the sawmill end of the business when he went to work for the Pacific Spruce Cor. poration at Toledq Oregon. This mill, in. cidentalln was the forerunner to C. D. Johnson Lumber Co., which was sold several years ago to Georgia-Pacific Corp.

Paul returned to San Francisco during the'early 3O's for Donovan Lumber po. and in 1936-30 years ago-he moved into the $1 Drumm Bldg. to join J. E. o'Eddy"

Peggs who was running a brokerage business under his own name.

When Peggs vacated his Drumm Bldg. offices in 1942, McCusker simply hung a new shingle on the door and he'g been hard at it ever since.

Paul and his wifeo ,Mary, live in San Francisco's. Forest Hills aree and they are the proud parents of two daughters, Sheila who is attending the University of California, and Molly who attends Dominican College. ir?

Fqmed Lumber Heodquorfers Clo6es

San Francisco's Sl Drumm Bldg, of $l Drumm St. could only be de' which for years served as headquar- seribed as the area's biggest lumberters for the who's who of the lumber yard, and it- paid the shrewd oper' industry in northern California, will ator to keep a sharp watch over his fall before the wreckers ball late this property. year. Its last Iumber tenant, Paul Although there have heen hundreds McCusker, vacated his offices after 30 of lumber i:ompanies which have years in the famous old building. called the $I Drumm Bldg. o'home"

Although it's a little hard to be- over the past 57 years, following are lieve now, the main reason for the a few of the buildings early tenants: building's popularity was because it Hartwood Lumber Co. (the buildlooked down over the city's then huge ing's first tenant), Hobbs Wall Lumpublic wharves. The first steel and ber Co., E. K. IVood Lumber Co., concrete building ereited after the Schafer Bros. Lumber Co., Freeman quake and fire, the building was com- Steamship Co., A. B. Johnson Lum. pleted in 19@ and was originally ber Co. only 8 floors. Four stories were added Charles R, McCormick Lumber Co. later as lumbermen and shippers (and later Pope & Talbot Lumber clambered for more space. Co.), Olson-Mahoney Lumber Co.

As all lumber in those days moved (now Oliver J. Olson & Co.), and into San Francisco Bay on lumber Sudden & Heitman Lumber Co. (later sshooners, the public wharves in front to become Sudden & Christenson).

Trouble - Free Sliding Door Pockets

Specify Nordahl, and your sliding door troubles are over, whether ror qua ty or budget construction Nordahl sliding door pockets are so perfectly aligned, the ball-bearing rollers seem to glide along the aluminum tracks forever. Pockets frame-in easily and quickly. rigid metal reinforced jambs require no stops. Shipped comp ete as package unitmakes installation a breeze. Do the best by yourself and your customers cut buiiding costs - up profits. Insist on Nordahl.

Notionol Redwood Pork Heorings

'l'ht' Senate lnterior Committee has held ht:arings in \{'ashing. torr. l). (.. on proposals to ('r('at(' a national rcdrvood park in (.lliforrria.

'l'lrt ittlnrirristritliott's lxr.ili,rr \\iri l)rr,s('nlr'<l lrr Irrttrior S,'r'r.'tarr Sllrrart 1.. I rlall arrd tht,<'hit'fs oI tht'Park St'rvict'antl t]rc Ilrrrt'trr oI Oulrloor llt,r'rt'ation. Huroltl Miller. presidcnt of the \lillt'r--llt'llirn lledrt oorl Ct,.. (lrt'scerrt Citl'. (lalif .. rvhost' lan<ls rrottlr'l I t' taklrr I'v tht' park proposals" also testifietl.

St,r'rt'tarr. I tlall anrl St'rr. Thorrras H. Ku<:hel ( Il.(]alif t anrtount'etl tltat arr o{Tt'r had lret,rr ret'eir,erl fronr a privtrte [oundatiorr to reimlrurst Jliller-llellirn [or ecottomit' losses int'urrctl irt haltirrg logg-ing opt'rations orr the lan<ls under <'onsicleration. St'rttrtor Kuchel htrs made outspoken denands that \liller-Rellim curtail operations on l6n6l-. proposed {or the park.

lliller pointed out that currt-nt logging operations lollow a master plan deleloped manl vears ago {or most eltrr'ient {orest nranagement. He stated that a shutdown in opt'rations l,oulcl he a selere economic lrlou to the cmployecs and tht. c'ountv. Houever. ltt'indicated the t'ompant'uould l,e rvilling to t'onsider the lrroposal. r'hich uas to lie made privatt'lv following tht' ht'aring.

New Colimeso Operotion

\\'illiarn H. \\iood has lrought out tht. lrrmher anrl brril<ling rnatt'rials cL'1>artment of Halt'& Orcenslade in (.lalimt'sa. Calif. an<l is opt'rating it as llill Wood's (laslr Lumlrt,r. He has opcrated llrt' rlt'purtnttrrt sirrt't' Januarr " 1965.

Tht' l,usirtt'ss u ill lrt strictll' t'aslt arrd will strt'ss pt'ict' as a selling tool.

\\'ood opcrated n'holesalt' and rt'tail lurnlrt'r an<l lruilrling materials lrusint'sses in Arizorra with his four brothers lrc[orc rnoving to thr Yuc'aipa area.

Wholesalers of West Coast

Softwoods: Douglas Fir

White Fir . Ponderosa Pine

Sugar Pine . Hemlock

Via Rail. T&T

Ooklond Club Elects Koepf

Jack Koepf, Grein Geisert's right hand man at Peerless Lumber .Company, has been elected president of Oakland Hoo-Hoo 39. Other new officers include Castro Valley Lumber's Ralph Boshion as vice-president, Western Dry Kiln's El Werthman re-elected secretary-treasurer, and Sun Valley Lumber's Jud Hughes who was named sergeant-at-arms.

Club 39's new board of directors will include Milt Cook, Eastshore Mill & Lumber; John Pearson and Bob Gerhart of Pearson Lumber; Bob Macfie, Georgia-Pacific Corp; and Al Mury of Evans Products Company.

Installation of the new officers and directors has been tentatively scheduled for Monday evening, September 19.

Two Oregon Firms Rqzed

A Portland, Oregon lumber company's storage building and office were devastated by a fire in August, Portland fireman reported.

The Parr Lumber Company's buildings were a total loss before fire equipment came upon the scene, the firemen said. A nearby clinic also was afiected by the flames.

In the Oregon state capitol, a fire causing estimated damage of $200,000 struck Dick Meyers Lumber Company at 1775 Lana Street, last month, Salem police officials reported. The Meyers complex was completely destroyed and state and city arson investigators launched an extensive probe.

Outline for Building Code Study

A comprehensive outline for an anticipated Federal study of building codes has been sent to the Department of Housing and Urban Development by a building construction industry commit. tee of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. It was submitted at HUD's request as they are awaiting Congressional approval of a $I.5 million request to undertake the l8-month study.

The Chamber's outline recommends 89 points a study of building codes would have to cover "to produce the facts essential for an impartial, constructive analysis of the subject."

Monogement Seminqr Plqnned

The second annual Top Management Seminar, staged by LMA, again boasts a balanced program to give dealers information in meeting today's marketing needs, according to co-chairmen Arthur E. Masters of King Lumber in Bakersfield and Duane Bennett of Mead Clark Lumber in Santa Rosa.

Speaking on the subject of personnel will be Kirk W. Frederick, a vice president of Fiberboard Cotp.; merchandising will be handled by William Lehrburger, the directoi of dealer market development for U.S. Plywood; credit by A. C. Rice, a Bank of America veep; sales by George Conley, regional manager of the home building products division of Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp.

The seminar will be held September 18-20 at Asilomar near Pacific Grove, Calif.

For the first time manufacturers and suppliers have been invited to join in with the dealers. Lumber Merchants Association has done this, according to veep Bob McBrien, to help close any possible gap between segments of our industry.

Those interested in attendins should contact the association.