Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Smrekar Retires From Potlatch As VP

Potlatch Corporation chairman and chief executive officer L. Pendleton Siegel recently announced the retirement of Wood Products Group vice president Thomas J. Smrekar, 57, and the appointment of Richard K. Kelly as his replacement.

Kelly, 52, has been the group's Western Division vice president since 1993.

Smrekar, who has been group vice president since 1992, elected to take early retirement at the end of 1999. He will continue on special assignments until the effective date of his retirement.

Smrekar joined the company's Northwest Paper Division in Minnesota as public affairs director in 1974 and advanced to woodlands manager in 1977. In 1979, he became the Minnesota Wood Products Division manager and was promoted to division vice president in 1984.

Siegel credited Smrekar with establishing the Minnesota Wood Products Division and developing and expanding Potlatch's oriented strand board (OSB) business.

Kelly joined Potlatch Corporation in 1976 as safety coordinator for the Western Wood Products Division. He was promoted to employee relations manager for the Minnesota Wood Products Division in 1983 and returned to Idaho four years later as employee relations manager for the Consumer Products Division. He was appointed vice president of manufacturing for the Consumer Products Division in 1990.

Kelly is a graduate of Brigham Young University and has a masters degree in safety engineering from Central Missouri State University.

Potlatch is a diversified forest products company with timberlands in Arkansas (including Prescott), Idaho and Minnesota.