James Nutt James Nutt was born in Thornton, Arkansas September 1, 1931. After high school, he attended Arkansas A&M College at Monticello before entering the Navy in 1952, where he served as an airplane mechanic. After the Navy, he came home to Arkansas and bought a ground hog sawmill, and got a contract in 1959 with a mill in ElDorado. He operated logging jobs in Louisiana and Texas, operating from Winnfield and later Grayson, where his wife Charlene is from.In 1980, he jot a job with Kirby Forest Products and moved to Cleveland, Texas, working for Kirby until the company sold to Louisiana-Pacific in 1987. He retired again for about a year, then started another job, adding the fist stroke delimber in Texas. In 1991 he and Danny Dructor started a job called BMP, Inc. Danny later bought out James' interest, and he started another job for himself in 1996 called Timber Services, Inc. He retired the final time in mid-2006. The following is from a eulogy written for the February, 2008 edition of "Texas Logger" magazine by Danny Dructor, a one-time business partner with James Nutt, following Mr. Nutt's death in 2008. Dructor is currently executive director of the American Logging Council. Mr. Nutt served as the third President of the Texas Logging Council. I can remember like yesterday the very first time that I had dealings with James. I met him out on his job when I was a young upstart forester, and proceeded to tell him everything I thought I knew about logging and what all he was doing wrong. I could not understand why he simply walked away from me.\par }{\plain Over the course of 25 years, I have probably never met a person for whom I have gained more respect for than James. First and foremost, James love his wife, Charlene, and all of his family. I believe that everything James did or stood for was somehow related to ensuring that his family would be well taken care of. Second, James loved the logging woods. Waking up early in the morning and staying out oftentimes past dark to make the most of every day was James' way of life. If you call me at 5:00 this morning, must to see if I'm awake, tomorrow I'm going to call you at 4:30! James was also tough,. I can remember wondering if when I got to be James' age, if I would still be able to jump on and off loaded log trucks with a chain saw or wrestle with a sledgehammer driving out a broken pin on a loader boom. James knew how to run a business. One of the things he used to tell me was that one of his only regrets in life was not having finished college in order to be better at running his business. I could only tell James that I did finish college and hope that someday I could be half as good as he was at running a business. When James and Charlene first came to Texas I never heard him speak more than ten minutes at a time to anyone except I knew that when J.C. Colvin came to visit, they would sometimes go out in the yard and sit on a log and talk for hours. When James went to Texas Logging Council nmeetings and served as their third president, I remember him sitting and listening more of the time, but every once in awhile he would say, "Er . . . I've been listening to what you all are saying, but let me tell you what I think." A silence could come over the meetings . . . you could see the lights coming on in the minds of those who were listening. I remember Tommy Burch telling me, "James doesn't say much, but when he does, you better be paying attention." James was not only a thinker, he was also a visionary. He brought the first folding log trailers to Texas. He was one of the first to use a pincher head shear in the state, and it did not take him long togo to a sawhead shear and then to a stroke delimber. There are many men in business today that were able to learn from James and grow and prosper from his teaching, or what I like to call the 'James Nutt School of Logging'." James had a work ethic that is not uncommon among his peers, but the professionalism and integrity that he brought to the woods with him everyday, along with the pride and joy that he poured into his work often resonated with his crew. If you did not take the same pride and commitment to your work that James did, chances are that you would not last very long. I loved James like a father, and consider myself blessed to be called his friend. God blessed James Nutt, and in doing so, blessed all those that came to know him. |