JANUARY 2008: BIZLIFE, SECOND ACT
I
remember Mama
HARRY A. MERLO, the legendary (at least in Oregon) and
controversial former chairman and CEO of Louisiana-Pacific
Corp., has steadfastly kept his privacy since he was fired from
the giant wood-products company in 1995. Since then, as head of
the Merlo Corporation, he’s continued to work globally in
the forest industry, oversee his charitable foundation, and
operate his California winery. All apparently without much need
or desire for any more time in the media spotlight.
So it would take something much more important than business
to draw out this lion in winter on a foggy, chilly November day
at his office at Global Aviation in Hillsboro, and it is this:
The 82-year-old Merlo has authored a book. Not about business,
though it has plenty of that in it. And not about his
high-profile ouster after 22 years with L-P, following the
company being hit with lawsuits over defective house siding and
a federal criminal indictment over environmental law
violations.
“It is not about L-P,” says Merlo, cutting
off any questions about the past. “It is about a great
woman. I wrote the book for Mama.”
“Vintage
Merlo,” co-authored with Kerry Tymchuk, the state
director for Pendleton Republican Sen. Gordon Smith, is
dedicated “To Mama, who made it all possible,” and
indeed, the 150-page book begins with Merlo’s Italian
immigrant parents and never lets go of how the hard work and
love of his mother nourished and inspired him. There is also
his abusive father, growing up dirt poor (so poor that
“Dad took us to the graveyard every Christmas Eve to show
us where Santa Claus was buried,” his brother jokes in
the book), his career in the timber industry (the end of his
L-P tenure is described simply as: “On July 31, 1995, L-P
and I parted company”), and the famous people he met
along the way (Maya Angelou, Malcolm Forbes).
Harry Merlo in his
Hillsboro office framed by a picture of his Mama and
father.
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“It’s the mother of all Horatio Alger
stories,” says Tymchuk (in fact, Merlo is a member of the
Horatio Alger Association). Tymchuk also has collaborated with
Smith on Remembering
Garrett, about the suicide of the senator’s
22-year-old son, and partnered with Bob and Elizabeth Dole on
five books. But it was his collaboration with Columbia
Sportswear’s Gert Boyle on her book, One Tough Mother, that caught
Merlo’s attention. Tymchuk interviewed Merlo over the
course of a year to write the book. A few thousands copies are
being published this month by the Merlo Foundation.
Behind Merlo’s desk is a large painting of his mother
and father from 1923. Clotilde Merlo died at age 69, when Harry
was 44. In the book, he talks about how after she died, he
caught himself wanting to pick up the phone to call and tell
her something. It is a testament to the universal power of
mothers that even now when talking about her, he is reverent,
emotional.
“I never felt poverty because of her work,” Merlo
says, the memory softening his voice. And it is unlikely that
had she lived to see the considerable wealth and influence he
has amassed that it would matter to her. “She
wasn’t impressed by financial wealth,” he says.
There are many pages devoted to “Merlo’s Maxims on
Leadership,” which are infused with his mother’s
influence. Including, “If you never share a dollar, you
will never share a million.”
Merlo’s story ends with an ancient, ageless expression
of love from mother to child, and now from child to mother. It
ends with Mama’s favorites
recipes.
ROBIN DOUSSARD
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