Kenneth “Pappy” Ford; Timber Executive, Philanthropist

Kenneth “Pappy” Ford, 88, Oregon timber merchant and philanthropist. Ford built Roseburg Forest Products Co. from a collection of secondhand machinery into the largest privately held timber company in the nation. In 1936, Ford established a mill near Roseburg and soon after that paid $4 an acre for 85,000 acres that the county had taken over for delinquent taxes. The purchase was the beginning of the Roseburg Forest Products empire, which now has assets of $1 billion. In 1970, Ford and his former wife, Hallie, created the Ford Family Foundation, which has donated tens of millions of dollars to schools, public agencies and charities. Most of the scholarships and other grants from the foundation have been awarded in the geographical areas where Ford’s company operates: Coos and Douglas counties in Oregon and Siskiyou County in California. On Saturday in Roseburg, Ore.