Beaver Revamps Old Plant to House Modern Facility

tiRINC THE PAST year there have been things happening at 555 Reed St. in Santa Clara as the aptly named Beaver Lumber Company gang have truly been "busy as beavers."

The location is the old home of the Pacific Redwood Casket Co. which was purchased by Beaver Lumber in August 1965. Although the casket division has been retained, any resemblance to the old operation today stops right there. The plant has been transformed into one of the most modern remanufacturins and distribution setups in northern California some 2jJ acres in all with several acr,es undercover. complete rnillwork and milling facilities. new offices-in short, the works!

But on May 30, 1965, things weren't as rosy as they are today. Beaver Lumber president Fran Winkel spent most of that day watching a good part of his plant go up in smoke. The business at that time was in nearby San Leandro and covered some ten acres with several million hoard feet of lumber in storage.

With a buyer ready for his San Leandro property, Fran began eyeing the Santa

Clara Valley area, and specifically, the larger Pacific Redwood Casket property headed by Claude Reynolds.

The formation of that company dates back to 1933 when Pacific Manufacturing Co. merged its casket business with that o{ The Pacific Lumber Company, the plant remaining at Santa Clara. Reynolds was named manaser of the firm at that time with J. G. Gnnedy, president; A. Stanwood Murphy, vice-president; Robert l(lass, secretary; and W. F. Hayward, treasurer. Prior to the merger, P. M. Co. had operated a casket department in Santa Clara since the late I800s.

Running A Sawmiit

Although the casket business is a litde out of Winkel's line, so was lumber when he originally found himself running a sawmill at Roseburg, Oregon.

Turning our time machine 'back to the late World War II years we find Fran Winkel operating a prosperous bakery and restaurant business known as the Alameda Food Shop. Next came the urge to speculate in the lumber business and shortly after tha: came the necessity to protect that investrur:nt.

So in 1946, we find our ex-baker running the By-River Lumber Co., a Douglas fir mill, at Roseburg. The following year Fran acquired the Bodily Manufacturing Co. and the property in San Leandro which he sold last year. The sawmill was later disposed o{ and during the past 20 years Beaver Lumber Company has earned a significant position in northern California retailing.

Beaver's new Santa Clara operation differs from the old San Leandro plant as more emphasis is now being placed on uppers in both redwood and fir, specialty products and millwork with resulting sales efiorts heavier to industrials, eastern business and local LCL shipments to smaller lumberyards.

Other key Beavers include yard superintendent Gil Lowden who hails from Oregon, Jack Manuel the head grader. and Dale Reynolds who coordinates the casket division sales. Dale is the son of Claude Reynolds, former president of Pacific Redwood Casket Co.

HOO-HOOS pa(:ked up their wir"es antl kids {or the Los Angeles Clu}r'-. annual safari to the high desert for their family weekend and invadcd Ror- llogers' Applt' Valley lnn.

\l hile the Hoc,-Hoos chased tlrt: little white ball. tht'ir wives gathcred at poolside to soak up some sun and exchange the latest gossip.

Highlight of thc weekend was the Saturday night dinncr-dance at which club president Frank Quattrocchi pas-.cd out a tnrr:kload of door prizes. clonated bv a long list