Twenty-year Timeline Is Full Of Bullet Points

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-In-Chief

When I read the cover story for this issue on RoyOMartin’s OSB plant in Oakdale, La., written by senior editor Jessica Johnson, it struck me that a lot had occurred at Martco in the 20 years since the plant started up in early 2007. 

The photo shown on this page of three former Martco men is a classic. It was taken by senior editor Dan Shell when Panel World visited the new Oakdale OSB plant in 2007. Adrian Schoonover, as vice president of engineering, not only oversaw the construction of the Oakdale OSB plant, but also the one at Corrigan, Texas many years later, not to mention numerous expansions at the company’s plywood mill and other timber operations. Roy O. Martin III said of Schoonover, upon Schoonover’s retirement in 2018: “He literally built this company.” Schoonover, who was born in Clarkston, Wash. and worked at RoyOMartin for 24 years, died at age 70 in 2023.

Also in the photo, former vice president of manufacturing Jerry Buckner had come out of semi-retirement to serve as startup coordinator at Oakdale. He was a driving force behind the company’s hardwood OSB mill in LeMoyen, La. that started up nearly a quarter-century earlier, in 1983, and was instrumental in Martco’s new plywood mill that came on at Chopin in 1996.

The young looking Terry Secrest retired as recently as this past spring as vice president of manufacturing after 21 years with the company, his most two recent greenfield projects the two OSB plants at Corrigan.

I could go on and on with the personnel developments at Martco since 2007. Of course in addition to the three men noted above, Jonathan Martin, as president, CEO and chairman (at various times), was the innovator of all of the projects. He died in 2019, succeeded by his cousin, Roy O. Martin III, who had become a pivotal fixture at the company, especially when it came to dollars and cents, in the mid 1990s. Scott Poole became president and COO upon Jonathan’s death.

And just in 2025 Roy O Martin III retired as CEO, succeeded by Poole, who became the first non-family member to head the company, and who joined the company nearly four decades earlier.

There are too many other significant personnel developments at Martco to mention here, but you get the idea. Martco is a company that has continued to evolve through personnel, principles and culture.

The only problem with the passage of time is that many good people, like those mentioned here, can’t carry on forever.