By HOPE J. NORMAN
Journal Correspondent

In February an historic milestone was noted in the United State Congress when California Democrat Nancy Pelosi was named Minority Whip in the House of Representatives-- the highest position yet achieved by a woman in that body's more than two centuries of existence. Ms. Pelosi will thus be the first female ever to be included in the highest level White House/Congressional leadership powwows.

Meanwhile, down our way, the Louisiana Forestry Association and the Arkansas Forestry Association have something else in common besides more than a half century's leadership in their respective states' forestry management: each organization now boasts of its first woman president. Joy Hodges of Alexandria is in her second year as president of the 3,000-member LFA, while, in Arkansas, Peggy Clark of Hot Springs was installed last fall as president of the 1300-member AFA. Ms. Clark will serve until 2003.

There are similarities, too, between the two women who have earned these top leadership positions. Both have worked in their home states' forestry organizations for more than two decades; both women have valuable experience -- and excellent records -- of management of family-owned timber-related businesses. Both have earned recognition in civic and charitable endeavors. And each grew up with a heritage of several generations of forestry ownership.

" My great-grandfather had a sawmill business in the Arkadelphia area," Ms. Clark said recently in a telephone interview. " In the process he acquired large tracts of timberland. His only son -- my grandfather Clark -- got a Master of Psychology degree from the University of Virginia. Later he said perhaps that was the best degree for running a sawmill," she added with a laugh.

Coming back to Arkadelphia to join his father in the timber business, Grandfather Clark continued to run the family business, Clark Timberlands, after his father' s death. He became known as " Cap' n Clark," building a boat for river trips: from Arkadelphia via the Ouachita River and connecting rivers on to the Mississippi River to New Orleans, and even from the upper reaches of the Mississippi in Minnesota all the way down to the Crescent City.

"Cap' n Clark" also acquired 2,000 acres of Arkansas timberland at the confluence of the Caddo and Ouachita Rivers, building camping cabins and trails in the forest and establishing a cattle ranch where he was known for his whimsical habit of naming individual members of the herd for members of his wife' s bridge club.

Shortly after World War II, the remaining sawmills were sold and the business concentrated on timber management, Ms. Clark said. Meanwhile her own father, himself an only son, had joined his father, " Cap' n Clark" , in managing the business.

Like his psychology-trained parent, Ms. Clark' s father had an unusual formal education for timber management: a 1945 M.D. degree from the University of Arkansas Medical School at Little Rock, followed by an internship in Minnesota.

Returning to Arkansas, Dr. Clark at first practiced medicine in Arkadelphia for only a brief time, his daughter said, before giving up his practice to work fulltime with his father for many years and eventually to manage the timber business alone.

" I myself can hardly remember him practicing medicine," Ms. Clark said.

This time there was no " only son" to take over for the next generation. One of three daughters, Peggy Clark was "doubtless expected to marry, have 2.3 children and a station wagon," she said. " But even though I never married and had children, I never had the feeling that they expected me to run the business."

Ms. Clark' s own 1971 college degree was a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Her first four years of a career in the business world were spent as Supervisor of the Nursing Administration Office for Texas Children' s and St. Luke' s Hospitals in Houston, followed by two years also in Houston as a real estate sales associate, which she " loved" .

She returned to her home state in the late 1970s, working for two years as a hospital examiner for the state' s Medicare and Medicaid Program while at the same time joining her father in managing the family business.

" Daddy was my best friend," she said. " I had fun with him and I loved it."

Giving up her health care position to work fulltime with her father, she chose to live in Hot Springs, building a house in 1980 on Lake Hamilton and commuting to Arkadelphia where Clark Timberlands is still headquartered (" in my grandparents' home," she said).

In 1987, when Dr. Clark died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack, Ms. Clark stayed on and took charge of the day-to-day management.

" The Arkansas Forestry Association was the first organization I joined after I got into the family business," she said. " Usually my cousin (who was older) and I were the only women attending the meetings, except for a few spouses. I soon became a state forestry commissioner, and I served on virtually every committee. For many years I was the only woman. Never once was I made to feel that my opinion was unwelcome because I was a woman. I have never, ever run into any prejudice.

" It' s a wonderful organization," she continued. " It serves landowners so well. It keeps an eye on legislation that has an impact on forests. There are clinics for private landowners on every aspect of timber management. Right now we have a horrible problem with red oak borers in northern Arkansas and we are addressing that."

Besides her business-related duties, Ms. Clark continues to serve as a trustee of the Hot Springs Mid-America Museum, the Arkadelphia-based Ross Foundation and the Conference of Southwest Foundations, Dallas, the latter of which she was 2000-2001 president. For the five years of its existence, from 1995-1999, the award-program of the Arkansas Business Magazine named her as one of Arkansas' s Top 100 Women.

Ms. Clark' s counterpart in Louisiana, LFA president Joy Hodges, is also a fourth generation landowner. "It' s my history," she said in a recent telehone interview. " I grew up in the business. It' s in my blood."

Her grandfather owned the East Union Lumber Co. in Mississippi, and her father, William H. Nalty, owned the Hammond Lumber Co. as well as acreage in Alabama.

After growing up in Hammond and New Orleans, Joy Nalty married William H. Hodges and moved with him to Alexandria where the Hodges Livestock Co. was located. While rearing four children, Mrs. Hodges also amassed an impressive array of credits for service on numerous civic boards and agencies. Her community leadership in Central Louisiana included effective service, frequently in executive roles, for the Alexandria Museum of Art, the Rapides Symphony, United Way, LSUA Foundation, YWCA, Committee of 100 for Economic Development and St. Francis Cabrini Hospital, among many others.

More than 20 years ago, after her husband was killed in an automobile accident, Mrs. Hodges assumed an even more active role in the family business, serving not only as managing partner of the timber property but also as an executive in their livestock brokerage business.

She was quick to credit LFA with her education in forestry over the past two decades. " I knew nothing; I needed Forestry 101. I went to their meetings; I got involved; I served on committees. I absolutely soaked up like a sponge all the information they provided."

And, like Ms. Clark, she has felt no gender discrimination in the industry which had long been predominately male-dominated. " They' ve been so generous," she said.

Halfway through her term as LFA president, Mrs. Hodges said, " My big drive this year is to engage more private landowners in LFA. You don' t have to own 10,000 acres to be involved." She cited such membership benefits as assistance offered with estate planning by competent estate planners for family-owned timber " so landowners won' t have to buy back their own inheritance." She is especially proud of LFA' s success with its Master Loggers Program which has improved safety immeasurably, benefiting landowners, loggers and mills as well as the public in general. Another current emphasis is a brand-new program on water control. " We are incredible stewards," Mrs. Hodges concluded.

Both AFA and LFA membership includes landowners, foresters, timber company personnel, forestry products workers and anyone else interested in the management of forest lands. In both states, more than one-half of forest land is under private ownership, with the next largest percentage owned by industry and the smallest proportion by local, state and federal government; in both states, forestry is cited as the state' s leading industry. Both private, nonprofit associations seek to provide accurate and helpful information for all aspects of forestry management.

In an interview in early February on National Public Radio regarding her new position as Minority Whip, Representative Pelosi said fulfilling her influential new job responsibilities would require " much more than being cutesy and sweetsy" . Leading Arkansas and Louisiana' s chief forestry organizations in promoting intelligent management of their states' major industry requires much more as well. Both current presidents Clark and Hodges clearly exhibit the energy, know-how and courage to measure up to the challenge.

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