Sun Lakes Aero Club
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See Harold’s Portrait Below

Name:	Harold E. Thomas
Call Me: (Nickname)	Harold
Spouse:	Phyllis
Birth Place:	Idaho
Raised In:	Idaho
Pilot Ratings:	Single/Multi Engine Land and Sea, Commercial, Instrument
Planes Previously Owned:	Bonanza’s and Cessna’s
Planes Currently Owned:	Cessna T206, Piper Super Cub
Planes Flown:	Mooney, Bonanza, Baron, Cessna C150,C172, C175
Hours Flown	9,000 +/-
Military Experience:	3 Years Nave WW II (non-flying)
Rank When Retired:	Aero 1^st (Meteorology)
Professional/Life Work:	Business Executive, 40 Years
Education and Degrees	BS (Forestry) University of Idaho 1951
Club Affiliations	SLAC
Interests/Hobbies	Flying, hiking, non-profit service

Portrait of a Member

Meet

Harold Thomas

Harold Thomas was born in Glenn’s Ferry, Idaho where the Snake River and the Oregon Trail share the landscape. He lived in southwestern Idaho throughout his formative years. Summers his father ran mule trains providing supplies for miners and sheep herders and back-hauled moonshine for them. During the colder part of the year his father built and managed pool halls. Harold graduated from Nampa High School in 1943.

Harold decided to leave academia after one semester at the University of Idaho. He intended to achieve a degree in engineering, but it wasn’t the right time for that. Instead, he enlisted in the U. S. Navy and became skilled as a meteorologist at the Navy’s school in Lakehurst, New Jersey. He spent most of his 3-year enlistment during WWII in the Pacific Northwest where he was assigned duties at Sand Point Naval Air Center (Seattle) and in Shelton, Washington. One of his duties, conducted from a blimp, was to transmit weather reports while the Commander was assembling convoys that were headed into dangerous waters.

After the end of the war, Harold returned to school. He attended the College of Idaho for one semester, and then transferred to the University of Idaho where he earned a degree in Forestry in 1951. During the summer breaks, while attending the University of Idaho, he worked as a fire spotter for the U. S. Forest Service on some of the highest peaks in Idaho. From that experience with the government, Harold determined he wanted to work in private industry. One of his professors referred Harold to the owner of the St. Maries Lumber Company in a small town of the same name near Couer d’ Alene, Idaho. There, he entered employment as a trainee/intern and for 6 months Harold learned, through “hands-on” experience, every job associated with the production of lumber products. Harold found his niche.

Harold then moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota to gain additional experience in the wholesale lumber sales business. For 3 years he was assigned an area that included Minnesota and North Dakota. After a successful sales venture during a bitterly cold winter in 1954, Harold moved to Boise, Idaho and reasoned that he could “go it alone” with his own wholesale lumber business in his home state.

Harold capitalized on a professional sales relationship he developed with Weyerhaeuser selling their Glued Laminated Beams. With this well-established relationship he was able to develop his own company while serving the industry giant as a contract employee.

It was during this period that he entered into a partnership with an architect, Art Troutner, who had patented a new type of roof truss, but was having difficultly getting it into general use. Harold and Art became partners in 1960. Harold’s expertise resulted in improvements in the truss Art had designed and it began to sell, big time. Harold ended his formal relationship with Weyerhaeuser and concentrated on his new venture, Trus Joist Corporation. Trus Joist Corporation became a household name among general contractors and builders. Harold soon had sixteen production plants throughout the U. S. and Canada.

The development of the Trus Joist Corporation brought Harold face to face with the value of aviation in his business. In March 1961 Harold’s Bonanza became integral to establishing distribution centers for the Trus Joist Corporation. In fact, Harold eventually enhanced the distribution program by including a Bonanza for each of his regional managers. The happy ending came in the year 2000 when Weyerhaeuser purchased the corporation. Even after Weyerhaeuser purchased Trus Joist Corporation, Harold continued to fly.

Harold’s flying can be traced back to his formative years when he flew in a Piper Cub and an Aeronca Champ. He later went on to fly many aircraft, including: Cessna models 175, 185, 180, 206, many Bonanzas and a few Barons. In the late 60s Harold started flying the back country of Idaho in a C180 and a C185. In 1973 Harold, and his wife Phyllis, purchased a back country ranch in the wilderness area of central Idaho and flying was an essential means of transportation for them to access the ranch. In 1978 he moved up to a C206 which he continued to fly until just recently. During that same period, Harold flew all over the United States and Canada in several Barons and many Bonanzas. In 1987, during a 3-month period, Harold flew missions to serve humanitarian causes in Ethiopia. Harold has tallied over 9,000 hours of flying, and he holds a Commercial Pilot License, (SEL, MEL, Float and Instrument ratings).

Harold had a number of “white knuckle events” during the many hours he flew in support of his corporation and a few scares while flying in Africa. He now enjoys a Kit Fox and he is back into a Cub where it all began. Harold and Phyllis take off in their Cub and fly low and slow over the hills and back country of Idaho to their ranch on the Salmon River. They just look down and enjoy the beauty as it slowly passes beneath them. They just have fun - - flying!

MAY ALL OF YOUR FLIGHTS BE SAFE WITH FAIR SKIES, SMOOTH AIR AND A TAILWIND

RDE 2/2/04