The Oregon State University Sesquicentennial Oral History Project

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Eighty Years of Starker Forests, Inc.. August 29, 2016

Eighty Years of Starker Forests, Inc.

An interview with Gary Blanchard, Bond Starker and Anna (Starker) May, conducted by Mike Dicianna.

August 29, 2016

Location:  Starker Forests, Inc. headquarters, Corvallis, Oregon.

Founded in 1936 by OAC alum and professor T.J. Starker, the Corvallis-based timber management and harvest company Starker Forests, Inc. has been managed by four generations of Starkers, each of them educated in Forestry at Oregon State University. The model of a successful family business, Starker Forests, Inc. now manages over 85,000 acres of forestland and employees twenty people full-time. In this interview, company CEO Bond Starker, his daughter Anna (Starker) May, and long-time employee Gary Blanchard share their memories of the company and of OSU, while also detailing the field innovations and business acumen utilized by T.J. Starker and his son Bruce in building the company into a regional powerhouse.