He
graduated with honors from the School of Forestry at Oregon State College
in 1939 and then served in Europe as an artillery officer during the Second
World War. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the French Croix de Guerre
with silver star. Gene D. Knudson '39, retired CEO and chairman of the board of Willamette Industries, Inc., died April 9. Knudson was born in 1916 in Washtucna, Washington, to Andrew Christian and Eta Chapman Knudson. He graduated from high school in Weston, Oregon.
He
graduated with honors from the School of Forestry at Oregon State College
in 1939 and then served in Europe as an artillery officer during the Second
World War. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the French Croix de Guerre
with silver star.
He started his career in 1949 as chief forester of Willamette Valley Lumber Company, as Willamette Industries was then called. He earned successive promotions to logging manager, vice president for raw-material supply, and executive vice president, and in 1970 became president and chief operating officer. He became chief executive officer in 1974, and was elected chairman of Willamette's board of directors in 1976. He retired from his position as CEO in 1981, and from the board chairmanship in 1984.
He was a well-liked and respected chief, according to Cathy Baldwin Dunn, corporate communications manager for Willamette Industries. Knudson was "universally loved and respected," she wrote in a 1984 letter to then-Forestry dean Carl Stoltenberg, ". . . a man of his word, a straight-shooter; extremely modest; highly intelligent yet a very practical thinker; . . . he likes people and knows how to manage them."
Knudson was similarly esteemed by his peers in the wood products industry. "Gene was my friend and my boss from the time I returned from Army service in 1953 until I left Willamette in 1971," says Sam Wheeler '50. "He was and still is my ideal of what a leader should be."
Knudson had strong ties to Oregon State University, and he built many warm relationships over the years with people at OSU. Carl Stoltenberg, then Forestry Dean, had this to say in his nomination of Knudson for OSU's Distinguished Service Award, which he received in 1985: "Mr. Knudson has made generous and significant contributions through his behind-the-scenes sharing of managerial skills with public and non-profit organizations. And although not as widely recognized, his quiet, generous sharing of personal resources has inspired many others to give similarly."
Knudson became a trustee of the OSU Foundation Board in 1975 and served as Foundation president from 1981 to 1983. He subsequently served on the steering committee of FourSight, a major University effort to raise funds for materials science research programs. John Irving, the OSU Foundation's executive director, remembers Knudson as "a low-key guy, a wonderful man to work with in his leadership roles with the Foundation. He was a gentle person in the way he approached people, and he could make a point quietly, without hammering it home--you'd stop and think about what he just said, and you'd realize he was right."
A founding member of the OSU Presidents Club, Knudson gave generously to support University projects, notably the Valley Library renovation, the OSU Research Council, and teaching and research in the College of Forestry. "He was a great and generous friend of this College," says Dean George Brown, "and he is sorely missed by many."
Knudson served on the Oregon State Board of Forestry from 1961 to 1968. He was influential in transferring the state's forestry research program from the Department of Forestry to Oregon State University and placing it under the direction of the Dean of the College of Forestry. He was a past member of the Forest Research Laboratory's statutory Advisory Committee. He served in leadership roles in many industry-related organizations, including Oregon Logging Congress, Associated Oregon Industries and its legislative arm the Oregon Forest Industries Council, the Industrial Forestry Association, the National Forest Products Association, the Western Forestry and Conservation Association, and the Forest History Society.
For 25 years he was on the board of Keep Oregon Green, a fire-prevention organization. He joined the board of PortlandÕs Western Forestry Center (now World Forestry Center) in 1973 and was president from 1983 to 1985. He was a member of the Society of American Foresters.
Knudson is survived by his wife, Rosalie, daughter Linda Goldsmith, and son Mike Graydon.