By Vanessa Overholser - Staff Writer
From shingles to furniture, RW Wood Products, Inc., of 3222 Flemingsburg Rd., Morehead has changed with the times in the past 30 years of service. Richard White, owner and operator of the wood product business, celebrated his company’s 30th anniversary at the sawmill with his employees, friends and family Tuesday, Oct. 28.
“My grandfather, Ray White started making shingles and a shingle mill,” Richard White said. “He started a saw mill after the shingle mill.”
After White graduated from high school, he started to work with his father in the lumber business. His job included grading lumber, inspecting lumber, purchasing lumber and learning lumber sales.
He went to lumber school at the National Hardwood Lumber School of Inspection and training in Memphis, Tenn. He started the R. L. White Company in 1976. This company specialized in the sales of railroad ties, veneer white oak and walnut logs.
Two years later, he sold his business to Koppers Company, Incorporated. Then he moved to Flemingsburg Road. Then the company name changed to Richard White Wood Products, he said.
“The plan was to make a living and provide jobs to people in the area and export high grade veneer wood,” White said.
He received the Small Exporting Business of the Year for Kentucky award in 1986 and 1987. He was the recipient of the award because of the good business relationship his company has with corporations overseas.
Over the years, times and technology has changed. As for White’s lumber business is concerned, it has changed only in the way of managing it and not the demand for it.
“The days of mule and cart are gone for saw mills. The freight aspect of it has changed. We used to ship by boats. Now we ship in containers. As the population grows, there’s need for wood for homes and furniture,” he said.
His business portrays good attributes and this is why it has thrived for so many years, he said.
“Honesty and good business ethics still pays off to this day,” White said.
He said his company has done good things for Rowan County and the surrounding areas.
“This business has brought money back to this community, to farmers, local families, loggers and eastern Kentucky.”
