Harry Merlo papers

Harry Angelo Merlo was born in 1925, the son of Italian immigrants, and grew up in northern California. He served in the United States Marines, and then studied at the University of California at Berkeley, graduating in 1949. He began working at the Rounds Lumber Company as a shipping clerk, and eventually became its part owner and vice president. After the Georgia-Pacific bought the Rounds Lumber Company, Merlo oversaw Georgia-Pacific's lumber operations in the western United States. In 1973, pressure from the Federal Trade Commission prompted Georgia-Pacific to spin off one of its divisions into the Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Merlo was named Louisiana-Pacific's first executive. Under Merlo's leadership, Louisiana-Pacific developed a plywood substitute made from pressed sheets of resin and chips, first called "Waferwood" and then "Inner-Seal."

While head of Louisiana-Pacific, Merlo also had an impact on the local sports scene: He owned the Portland Timbers Soccer team from 1979 to 1982, and he played a role in bringing Davis Cup tennis matches to Portland. The women's soccer field at the University of Portland was named for him.

In the 1990s, Louisiana-Pacific faced lawsuits from customers who alleged it had sold defective siding that sprouted mushrooms. In 1993, the firm paid a $11.1 million fine for violating the Clean Air Act. In June 1995, a federal grand jury in Denver, Colorado, indicted the company on a 56-count criminal charge, alleging that the company had schemed to defraud customers and that it had made false statements about the amount of pollution its mill in Montrose, Colorado, had produced. At the end of July 1995, Louisiana-Pacific's board forced Merlo to resign.

After his resignation, Merlo focused on a winery he owned in Sonoma County, California, and a ranch he owned near La Grande, Oregon. In 2013, he funded an unsuccessful campaign to transfer control of the Portland Water Bureau from the city to an independent public utility board. Merlo died in October 2016.

Sources: "Timber CEO brought soccer to Portland," by Jeff Manning, Oregonian, November 6, 2016, page C6; "The Timber Baron Herry Merlo Died Last Week," by Nigel Jaquiss, Willamette Week, October 30, 2016, https://www.wweek.com/news/2016/10/30/timber-baron-harry-merlo-died-last-week/; "Grand jury indicts Louisiana-Pacific," by Peter D. Sleeth, Oregonian, June 16, 1995, page 1; "Louisiana-Pacific board fires Merlo," by Peter D. Sleeth and Steve Woodward, Oregonian, August 1, 1995, page 1; "Vintage Merlo," by Steve Woodward, Oregonian, August 4, 1995, page 1; "Mystery Man Revealed," by Nigel Jaquiss, Willamette Week, October 1, 2013, https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-21228-mystery-man-revealed.html