"I started pulling plywood on the green chain when I was 18, right out of high school," David West, the new Willamette Dodson mill complex manager told the Piney Woods Journal. "Just for me to be where I am now, I think says much about what a great company Willamette really is."
"If you work hard and take advantage of all the educational opportunities that Willamette offers, you can certainly move up the job ladder as I did," West emphasized. "I'm very proud to be part of the Willamette company."
West started working on the green chain at the Dodson plywood mill soon after graduating from Jonesboro High School in 1975. He worked at other jobs on the green end until 1980, when Bill King hired him as a "trainee supervisor."
Before being designated as a supervisor trainee, West had moved to the dry end of the plywood operation. After entering Willamette's supervisor trainee program, West became a shift supervisor on the dry end. Later, West was promoted to Dry End Lead supervisor and then to general foreman.
"It's ironic that 21 years later I would replace the man who really set me on a course into management," West noted. "Bill has been great to work for and I have learned a tremendous amount from him. After all these years at the Dodson complex, Bill now that he is retiring is going to get to do all the fishing he wants to."
Bill King, one of the real pioneers in the making of Southern yellow pine plywood, is retiring this spring from Willamette. For many years, Bill King has worn several different management hats with Willamette.
He has for several years been the manager of the Dodson plywood plant, the Dodson sawmill and the Willamette Taylor mill. The Taylor mill has been moved into a different management structure and West will manage just the Dodson complex as Mill Manager.
For the five years just prior to assuming the job last year as project manager for Willamette's latest multi-million dollar expansion project at its Dodson mill complex, West was plant superintendent at the Willamette Zwolle mill operation.
"Those five years in Zwolle were really enjoyable," West told the Journal. "It's a great bunch of people in Zwolle to work with. Bobby Rivers, the Plant Manager is a good guy to work for."
"We lived right on Toledo Bend Lake which was a wonderful experience for the whole family," West pointed out. "My whole family, Linda, my wife and two girls, Melissa and Amanda, loved to fish. The most exciting fishing was to get into a bed of bream on Toledo Bend Lake."
Apparently, living on a lake has become a way of life for the West family as they bought a place on Caney Lake east of Jonesboro when he took the project manager's job on the Dodson mill expansion in 2000. The oldest West daughter, Melissa, is attending ULM in Monroe majoring in Occupational Therapy, while Amanda attends nearby Weston High School
.
In addition to fishing, another hobby over the years for David West has been karate. West, who obtained his Black Belt in the Isshin Karate form years ago, taught martial arts for eight years in a downtown Jonesboro studio.
West, who grew up in the Jonesboro area, once cooked chicken at the Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Jonesboro while attending high school. Also during his high school days he helped his Dad, who has been in the commercial floor cleaning business for many years. West has one sister and two brothers. One brother is a welder while the other brother is a business consultant.
Within the last year, as Project Manager, West has overseen the installation of a new log processing center with a huge overhead crane for the Dodson sawmill, as well as an Opti-Mill unit.
"This expansion upgrade project gives us more versatility," West said in explaining Willamette's latest upgrade project at the Dodson complex. "The lumber market changes so fast these days that we need the capability to change rapidly with the market demands. With the new addition, we will also be more efficient in utilizing more of the available resources."
In response to the Journal's question as to the "most impressive" advances that West has witnessed in his 26 years in the forest products industry, West had this to say: "Two things have really impressed me in the industry. First has been the advances in technology that has allowed us to use more and more of the raw products in the mills. Secondly has been the success that Willamette has achieved in their Sustainable Forestry Initiatives to better take care of the environment and sustain our natural forest resources for future generations."
As to the immediate future at the Dodson Willamette complex, West made these comments: "We may add a new lathe in the plywood mill and modernize and upgrade the green end of the mill in the near future. The market may allow us to increase the production in the planer mill fairly soon."
"As for myself," the 44-year old new Dodson complex manager with 25 years experience in the mills said, "I want to continue doing the very best job I can for Willamette and take advantage of their continuing education program. If the opportunity to move further up the management ladder with Willamette presented itself, I would want to take advantage of that opportunity."
West has certainly come a long way from the green chain in the plywood mill in the last 25 years. He is a prime example of the combination of a great work ethic, continuing education, and the opportunities available working for a leader in the forest products industry.