Mr. William J. Barton

The Barton and Calder Industry Forestry Scholarship Endowment was established in 2001 by the late Mr. William J. Barton, in honor of his mentor, Alexander Calder, Jr.
William Barton was born in Canton, North Carolina. He received his bachelors in Forestry from the College of Natural Resources in 1947 and was named a Distinguished Alumni of the School of Forest Resources. Mr. Barton was a decorated veteran of World War II, having served as a First Lieutenant in the Infantry. He began his legendary career as an assistant state forester for the State of South Carolina. In 1956 he joined Union Camp Paper Corporation. He retired from the company in 1987 as Woodlands Division Operations Manager. In addition to being a registered forester and certified tree farmer, Mr. Barton was very involved in the forest products community. He served as president of the Society of American Foresters (SAF) in the late 1980s and received the Society’s John A. Beale Memorial Award for outstanding service to the SAF. He was a past president and director emeritus of the Georgia Forestry Association from which he received a Distinguished Service Award. He was a past chairman of the Southeastern Society of American Foresters and a member of the board of the North Carolina Forestry Foundation. Mr. Barton was a founder and past president of Southern Forest World. He received The Forest Farmer’s annual award. Mr. Barton was a member of Alpha Zeta, XI, Sigma Pi, and Phi Kappa Phi honor fraternities as well as Blue Key. He passed away in 2009.

In 1940, Mr. Calder joined what was then the Union Bag and Paper Company, which his father had built into one of the country’s largest manufacturers of paper and bags. After wartime service with the Board of Economic Warfare and the Navy, he returned to Union Bag in 1946. He was named president, succeeding his father, in 1956, the year the company merged with the Camp Manufacturing Company.

Mr. Calder was named chief executive in 1960 and chairman in 1972. He retired as chairman of the executive committee in 1986. He was an early advocate of conservation and environmental concerns in the paper industry. During his tenure, Union Camp donated 78,000 acres of its woodlands for preservation. He passed away in 1991.