The employees of Walter M. Fields Lumber Co., located in Memphis, Tenn., are like a family. In fact, the fourth generation lumber company is run by brothers, Walter “Wally” Fields III and Robby Fields, pictured at right and left of their father and founder, Walter Fields Jr.
Fourth Generation Of Fields Family Gives Back To Hardwood Industry
By Paul Miller Jr.
Memphis, Tenn.—Walter M. Fields Lumber Co., located here, was founded in 1960 by Walter M. Fields Jr. The company originally started out as an office wholesale company. Early in the 1990s, the company bought F.T. Dooley Lumber Co. and Thompson-Katz Lumber Co., which are concentration lumberyards that specialize in White Ash.
The company now sells more than 30 million board feet of Ash, Soft Maple and Poplar in 4/4 through 8/4, White Oak in 4/4 and Red Oak in 4/4 and 5/4 — all No. 1 Common and Better. Throughout the years of growing a family business, the family has a history of giving back and serving the Hardwood industry.
Presently, the company is run by Walter M. “Wally” Fields III, president, and his brother, Robby, vice president. Both have served along with their father as past presidents of the Lumbermen’s Club of Memphis. All three are recipients of the association’s “Wilson Award” for Lumberman of the Year. All three Fields — Walter, Wally and Robby — attended and graduated from the National Hardwood Lumber Assoc. (NHLA) Inspection School based in Memphis, Tenn. Walter graduated from the 3rd class, Wally the 47th and Robby the 57th class.
A loaded Walter M. Fields Lumber Co. truck is ready to carry an order to a customer. The company is located on the Mississippi River and Interstate 40, allowing for unmatched shipping options.
In addition, Walter Jr. and Wally have also served as past presidents of NHLA. Walter currently serves on the Hardwood Federation’s Board of Directors and is a past president of the West Side Hardwood Club and the Tennessee Forestry Assoc.
For more than 40 years, Walter M. Fields Lumber Co. Inc., has offered White Ash and other North American Hardwoods to customers around the globe.
“The strengths of our business are our family and our employees who are committed to giving our customers a consistent quality product and good service,” Wally said. “We feel the quality of the product we ship to our customers is second to none and we intend to keep it that way. We work hard every day on building relationships with our customers and our suppliers.
“We do a lot of business in Ash, which is normally a seasonal product, but we keep it in inventory year round,” he said. “Some companies will acquire Ash when they can get into the river bottoms and the rivers are low, so they aren’t a consistent supplier as we are. Because we buy it on a year round basis, our customers know they can come get it in February just as easy as they can
A worker prepares to place an order of lumber on the stacker.
get it in August. We buy from approximately 100 sawmills and our mills know we are here through the good times and the bad.
“Our customers are distribution yards, manufacturers of kitchen cabinets, flooring, millwork, moulding and furniture,” Wally said. “We are in an excellent location with respect to transportation since we have easy access to Interstate 40 (I-40) — which stretches from Barstow, Calif., to Wilmington, N.C. — and we have on-site rail facilities which connect to all major rail lines.
“We added a waste fired boiler and fourth day kiln three years ago which gives us a kiln capacity of 400,000 board feet,” he said. “In addition, we offer color sorting for No. 1 Common and FAS grades along with straight line and gang ripping. We also offer surfacing on our Newman 282 surfacer.
“We try to keep things simple here at Walter M. Fields Lumber Co.,” Wally said. “When lumber arrives, we inspect it, trim it and grade it. Then we sticker the lumber and place it in sheds for air drying. Afterwards, we kiln dry it and store it in a dry shed where we end coat it and, if it’s lumber for export, we put a logo on it.
“We are fortunate to belong to such a great industry,” he said. “Our father gave us a wonderful opport
An employee helps organize the boards ready to run through the planer.
unity when he started this business and taught us through his example of serving, what it means to be a part of this industry and what relationships with your customers and suppliers mean. The ultimate compliment our customer can give us is when our customer’s customer is telling them they like our lumber and they want more of Fields Lumber… then we know we’ve done it right.”
Walter M. Fields Lumber Co. produces power for its plant in a waste-fired boiler system.
A lumber stack of kiln-dried No. 1 Common Ash sits ready for shipment from the Memphis headquarters.
Lumber inspectors ensure each piece of wood shipped from Walter M. Fields Lumber Co. meets the high quality demands of clients.
