Weyco mill boss John Walkush to retire
Tuesday, May 13, 2003 8:46 AM PDT
By Pat Forgey
Printable version
E-mail this articleWeyerhaeuser pulp and paper mill manager John Walkush announced Monday that he will retire in June, ending a 30-year career with the company, including 20 managing various parts of its Longview operations.
"It just felt like the right time to turn the reins over to another group," Walkush said Monday.
Walkush will be replaced by a combination of three local managers supervising local pulp and paper operations. They'll report to Bill Baird, a pulp and paper vice president in the company's Federal Way headquarters. Baird is a former Longview mill manager.
Walkush said he's proud of what he's been able to accomplish in Longview, including working to improve the site's products, especially for export to the Japanese market.
He came to Longview in 1982 to manage the North Pacific Paper Co., a newsprint producer co-owned by Weyerhaeuser and a Japanese company that exports to Japan. He now manages the pulp mill.
His successes in Longview include developing a strong position in bleached board in the tough Japanese market, and developing NORPAC's leadership role in the newsprint industry, he said.
Baird called Walkush a "visionary leader," who was critical to the success of Weyerhaeuser's Longview operations.
"John has guided our mills and our employees through significant changes, with an unwavering focus on safety and corporate citizenship," he said in a press release.
Some of those changes included reductions in the size of Weyerhaeuser's Longview workforce. That angered some employees, but a former union official said Walkush may been blamed unfairly for that.
"John came in at a real difficult time," said Dick Hallock, former president of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers Local 580 at Weyerhaeuser's Longview site.
"He had to try to make some big changes in the mill. It didn't sit well, but that's business, and you look at any other paper mill, they're doing the same thing," he said.
Walkush said that mentoring people at Weyerhaeuser was one the things he's most proud of.
"The bottom line was the ability to guide and facilitate a lot of people development," he said.
Longview is also unique, he said, in that Weyerhaeuser has enough different operations locally to enable him to stay in the community and stay interested in his jobs.
"There were opportunities along the way, but this felt right for me and it felt right for my career. It's a unique location from that standpoint," he said.
Though Walkush said his children, all Mark Morris High School graduates, are spread out around the country, he and his wife, Pat, will stay in Longview.
"It's a great community," he said. "I have no reason to look elsewhere."
Retirement will give him time to do more hunting, boating and other hobbies. "I do enjoy the out-of-doors, and want to continue to do so. I'll also do some traveling, but not a lot," he said.
The new management team beginning July 1st will have three company managers, Tina Cygrymus, Frank Busch and Dennis Morgan, as the pulp and paper leadership team. They'll remain in Longview and report to Baird in Federal Way.
Walkush said he was confident the new management structure headed by Baird will serve Longview well.
"He's going to be a great leader, and a great champion for Longview," he said.
Cygrymus will be in charge of Longview site coordination and fiberline operations. She joined Weyerhaeuser in 1981 in Arkansas, and has been in management at NORPAC and Longview pulp and paper operations.
Busch will lead utilities, engineering and maintenance coordination. He started his career in 1984 at Longview Fibre, and moved to NORPAC in 1989. He's also worked in Longview pulp and paper operations for Weyerhaeuser.
Morgan will lead the paper machines and serve as mill manufacturing representative to the Bleach Board and Fine Paper businesses. He started his career in 1968 and joined Weyerhaeuser in Alberta, Canada, in 1992 when it acquired the company he was then working for. He came to Longview in 1993 and has held several local leadership positions.
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