9 Ford Family 740,000 acres
January 10, 2009 by Land Report Editors
At the height of the Great Depression, Kenneth Ford pursued a dream with a single sawmill near Roseburg, Oregon. Ford created Roseburg Forest Products Co., one of the largest family-owned wood products manufacturers in the nation. He was also one of the first timber men to practice responsible forest management onhis vast holdings, which stretch through Oregon and California. On his death, Ford, who founded the Ford Family Foundation in the 1950s, passed his legacy on to his son, Allyn, who oversees the family’s timber and wood products empire.
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My father worked as a suprintendant for Kenneth Ford in the 1980′s. That is when I first met him. He was a fiercely hands-on owner despite have multiple operational forest product companies. However, he was a generous man when it came to his employees. Several years after my father’s hiring, he developed multiple myeloma. Kenneth offered him anything he needed including paying for experimental treatments. Unfortunately my father passed away, but in a continuation of his kindness, he provided summer jobs in his mills for my sister and I while we were attending college and graduate school. His foundation remains an important part of southern Oregon as well. The foundation provides scholarships in an area of the country hit hard by recession and Federal forest management decisions.