TWENTYAs reported

vital as well today. Under Difford's direction, the plywood industry established a research foundation in 1945 to improve manufacturing techniques and develop new products suitable for production in plywood plants or allied factories. One company is now manufacturing a hardboard material from the foundation-developed process and another plant is under construction.

Difford was born in Illinois, educated at the University of Chicago and admitted to the bar in the state of Texas. Before first coming to the plywood association in 1938, he had been secretary of the Kentucky Retail Lumber Dealerb Association and president of W. J. Hughes and Sons of Louisville, Kentucky, one of the largest sash and door distributors in the south.

In his return to Douglas Fir Plywood Association, he brings in addition to long experience in retailing and merchandising of building materials and trade association work, a thorough knowledge of the plywood industry and selling at the manufacturers' level.