Legends of FMIC: Jim Sitts

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, still the young forester, was asked by his supervisor to attend a Hardwood Research Council conference, and it’s while at that conference that Jim met Walt Smith, a consultant with Columbia Forest Products. It took Columbia several years to begin the process of building a mill in Old Fort, North Carolina. Before building the new mill, Andy Honzel, owner of Columbia, while riding with Jim, checking the property, offered Jim the Timber Manager position for the new facility. Jim took the job and felt that Andy and Columbia, felt like family. He was home. Jim says that Andy was one of the greatest people to work for. Jim worked for Columbia for thirty-eight years, overseeing Columbia’s timber operations in North Carolina, West Virginia, and Kentucky. He says his time with Columbia was a great ride, and it was hard for him to retire.

Jim says that George Pace, former Chairman of the Board for Forestry Mutual was an inspiration to him over the years. He met George early on in his career while working with Weyerhaeuser. Later, while working for Champion, Jim had attended a few of the North Carolina Forestry Association meetings. He jokes, Again, because somebody else didn’t want to go. Send the young guy. He met many people involved in North Carolina’s Forest Products Industry that way, and what he’s learned over the years in his life is that it’s the contacts you make and the people you know more than anything else that will advance you in life. It’s about showing up, taking a chance. Taking a risk. Jim says you make it work out. It’s hard work. It’s a lot of sweat. But it’s not luck. You spell luck S-W-E-A-T. That’s how you spell luck.

You can say that Ed Pitman, who started the North Carolina Self-Insurers Fund, had put a lot of sweat into creating what is now Forestry Mutual Insurance Company. Jim met Ed in the early ’70s while Ed was at Weyerhaeuser as their safety manager. Jim reflects that everyone dreaded to see Ed show up on the job because Ed was so picky about safety. He would go out and look…and they had their own logging crews back then, and he would go out on the logging jobs, and he would just find one thing after another. And he had the authority to make them stop working. And so, they just dreaded it when Ed would come out on the job. But he was all about safety.

In 1985, while talking with Bill Kale, the Executive Director of the NC Self-Insurers fund, about how Columbia had all of their loggers insured, Bill mentioned he had an opening on the board and invited Jim to join. Jim thinks that the first board meeting he went to was in Wilmington, and George Pace had joined the board simultaneously.

Jim says that outside of Columbia, being on the board was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my career. Because we did so many good things. We weren’t in it to make money. He says, “I mean, we had to make money…it had to be run like a business because you had to keep the business alive. But the idea was to provide cost-effective insurance for the loggers.” He continues, “there’s no telling how much money Forestry Mutual has saved loggers across the South because all the insurance had to follow what they were doing.” Jim says, “Forestry Mutual’s the only company that provides loss control and a safe work ethic. No one else does that. Forestry Mutual is different. They came out and tried to help you keep from having that accident. They really wanted you to go home the way you came to work at the end of the day. I was proud to be associated with an organization like that, and Keith Biggs is doing such a great job with the company.” ~FMIC