LEGENDS OF FMIC Jim Sitts
Former Board Member FMIC Jim Sitts, former Forestry Mutual Insurance Company board member and the first recipient of the Paul Davis Distinguished Service Award in May of 2020. Jim was born in Gloversville, New York, and growing up in rural New York, Jim spent all of his free time in the woods. When he was old enough to drive, he was off with his friends camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, trapping, or whatever they could do to be outdoors. Jim and his friends would take off for a week to camp and trap with snow still on the ground during spring break. Being in the woods was just natural for Jim. Jim first attended Paul Smiths College, a small private college located in the central Adirondack Mountains of New York State. After two years at Paul Smiths, Jim graduated in 1968 with an Associate Degree in Forestry. He then transferred to NC State University and graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forest Management. I discovered during our interview that Jim has always had an infinity to be outdoors and truly enjoys being in the woods and watch the land mature. Not only the trees but the wildlife as well. While touring his property during our interview, we stopped numerous times to watch the deer and fowl that called his land home. We took a short walk,
and you could sense that being out walking in the woods is where Jim belonged. He was at home and at peace in the forest.
I discovered that Jim had an exciting career that revolved around the wood products industry. From his first jobs during summer breaks in college, pruning trees on a plantation in the Adirondack Mountains, marking timber for International Paper Company in Maine and conducting controlled burns in Washington State. Graduating NC State in 1970 and after a job in New York State buying White Ash logs for a baseball bat manufacturer, Jim ended up with Weyerhaeuser as a District Forester in Plymouth, North Carolina, with his new wife, Margaret, also affectionately known as “Chip.” She was an avid horse lover, and they had horses their entire life together. Chip passed away a few years ago, and Jim cares for their horses on their family farm.
Jim talked about when you’re a young forester, you get to do all the jobs nobody else wants to do. One of those jobs was to be a tour guide for an American Pulpwood Association field tour that Weyerhaeuser hosted. On this tour, during the lunch break, Jim met Bert Carlson on the front stoop of a small church. It was this meeting and maybe fate that eventually had Jim working for Champion International in western North Carolina. One day, Jim, continued on page 19 FMIC FALL 2021
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