August 2026

The annual Lumbermen’s Buying Guide issue of Timber Processing before you is devoted mostly to the equipment and technologies that comprise a sawmill, and to the manufacturers and suppliers of those items. Truly a year-round on-your-desktop reference for anybody interested in all-things sawmill. It’s almost like an annual breath of fresh air—here’s the newest equipment, and here are the manufacturers that are still in the game or even newcomers to it (and there are some) since last year’s directory. 

Given that the directory materials are spread throughout 55 pages, accompanied by another 45 pages of advertisements, the issue normally doesn’t allow much more space for editorial other than a few news releases—maybe a promotion announcement or a Forest Service development. However, we did something a little different this time, because, well, it landed in our lap so to speak and we think it makes for interesting reading—maybe providing a thoughtful moment in between digesting all the reference data in the directory.

One of the many, many great sawmillers that we never gave our annual Person of the Year award to, but should have, during its 38-year run, was Dick Bennett, he of the legendary Bennett family operations in the Snake River basin and points inward from the Washington-Idaho border. Bennett died in June at age 92.

I met him—I can’t say that I knew him—a couple of times at the annual sawmill machinery show in Portland, Ore., long before our own company took over the show, back when we were an exhibitor at the show. He was complimentary of our magazine and of some stances we had taken on the Canadian softwood lumber situation and on the national forest timber sales problem brought on by misguided environmental groups. 

Certainly our magazine had followed the plight of the Bennett family sawmill operations through the years (though sometimes it was difficult to follow which Bennett was in charge of which Bennett operation).

When I heard that Bennett had died, I reached out to Marc Brinkmeyer, owner/founder of Idaho Forest Group. Brinkmeyer and Bennett had merged their respective operations back in 2008 to form IFG. I don’t know Brinkmeyer very well either, but obviously we’ve followed IFG’s impressive growth through the years. I asked Brinkmeyer to provide a comment about Bennett for our story on page 10. As it turned out Brinkmeyer, at the request of Bennett’s family, had just spoken at a celebration of Bennett’s life in late June. Brinkmeyer reworked his talk into the article that begins on page 14.

The article provides a wonderful glimpse into Bennett’s character, and the relationship between Bennett and Brinkmeyer. Equally insightful is the description of the independent sawmiller landscape and the magnificent personalities therein during a period when the lumber industry was perhaps at its best.