Overmyer, Hardwood Lumber Industry Reached Their Peak Together

Donald Howard Overmyer, Jr., a 1997 Timber Processing Person of the Year, who was widely respected as a leader and innovator in the hardwood lumber industry, and who developed Linden Lumber Co. in Linden, Ala. into one of the most impressive hardwood lumber manufacturing operations in the U.S., during a time when the hardwood lumber industry itself was reaching new heights, died peacefully at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) Palliative Care on May 21. He was 88.

Born and raised in Chattanooga, Tenn., Overmyer worked on the green chain at an early age for his father’s Chattanooga Box and Lumber Co., and while in high school assisted in the construction and startup of a small hardwood lumber mill in Linden, which would supply lumber to the box operation.

After graduating from Baylor High School he attended the University of Alabama for a year, went to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and completed a two-year business school, and then served in the U.S. Army reserve program—all the while helping to start up small hardwood lumber mills in Alabama and Tennessee to feed his dad’s box plant.

After a fire destroyed the Linden mill in the early 1960s, Overmyer sold his shares in the box plant and borrowed funds from two banks to buy the Linden property, and reopened it as Linden Lumber Co., beginning a lifelong commitment to Linden and Marengo County in Alabama. Overmyer recalled: “My dad later said to me, ‘I wasn’t going to let you sink, but I was going to let it get right up to there on you.”

Overmyer rebuilt the mill with a circle saw headrig and sash gang, and altered his raw material from the soft hardwood species that had been supplying the box plant to red and white oak logs, which at the time were large, plentiful and sold for a reasonable price. It was indicative of the excellent foresight Overmyer would reveal in the coming years.

Production continued to grow but the real game-changer came in 1976 when Overmyer installed a bandmill and the business received a major shot in the arm. “It allowed me to make some money,” Overmyer said. “Before I put it in, I had 9 million feet of logs and cut 10 million feet of lumber a year. The next year I cut 12 million feet of lumber with the same amount of logs. And it came from the high end on the outside edge of the log.”

As his domestic oak market evolved, Overmyer began courting the export market and traveled to Europe extensively and established multiple contacts and customers. He shipped lumber out of the ports of Savannah, Charleston and Mobile.

Overmyer continued to make improvements to the sawmill, modernizing it in 1985 to cut large and small logs with vertical and horizontal resaws, a linear positioner carriage and scanner and additional dry kilns. By the mid 1990s the Linden was producing 60MMBF per year and running 27 dry kilns.

Also in the mid-80s, Overmyer got into the flooring business, first setting up a plant in Bay Minette, Ala. before relocating it to Linden in 1988 and enlarging it to three lines producing 22MMBF a year and 7% of the nation’s sold strip flooring production, sold under the company’s Red Crown label.

In the mid-90s Overmyer purchased a hardwood sawmill from Georgia-Pacific in nearby Thomasville, and Overmyer and his son, Hugh, upgraded it into a significant producer. In addition to the massive log yards at Linden, Overmyer would add log yards at Thomasville, and Camden, Ala. and Hickory, Miss. He also purchased a large number of rail cars from Temple-Inland.

As Overmyer grew his business, his involvement with Hardwood Manufacturers Assn. never wavered, serving as president in the mid-80s, on the board of directors and on the executive committee. Fellow hardwood lumberman Galen Weaber of Pennsylvania once said of Overmyer, “Don is the type of guy that whenever the industry has needed anything, particularly HMA, Don has been there. He’ll give them his time. He’ll give them his money.”

Overmyer once said of the importance of the association involvement, “We need to talk about our common problems, see if we can help each other and strengthen each individual mill, see if we can become more resilient in the downturns that we have every three or four years. The rules of the game are changing. It’s always been a highly volatile business, but there’s no predicting the market as we once did.”

Overmyer grew his business to more than 900 employees across three locations. Despite his many accomplishments, he remained humble and quietly helped countless individuals throughout his life.

He is survived by his daughter, Kathryn Earthman (Webb); son, Hugh Overmyer (Adrienne); daughter, Sarah Strother Perdue (Bruce); sister, Susan Ragland; numerous grandchildren, a great-grandson, and two great-granddaughters. He was preceded in death by his wife, Marjorie Strother Overmyer; son, Michael Keith Overmyer; and his parents, Donald Howard Overmyer, Sr. and Ruth Elberfeld Overmyer.

A memorial service will be held on June 8 at 2 p.m. at Faunsdale Presbyterian Church, with Rev. George McKee officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Faunsdale Presbyterian Church, PO Box 5, Faunsdale AL 36738.