Tom Kneeland’s Story!

As we contemplate the opening of the Dezotell addition and its significance for Powerland, the name Tom Kneeland emerges “front and center.” The Addition, a much needed and valued asset, would not be in form and structure today if it were not for two particular individuals, and Tom is one of those two personages! The other personality we will “visit” later.

Let’s talk about Tom! A multifaceted and multitasking individual, his impact is far reaching at the site. His enthusiasm seems to be never dampened by the tasks at hand, and he remains available to discuss yet another with the caveat that “it may take awhile to get to it.”

Consider any project of the past four-five years, and his presence and impact is very evident. There was the sawmill reconstruction and his significant assistance to Car & Motorcycle in constructing the Texaco Station. There remains this visual image of Tom working alone, siding the building in the face of a wind-wiped rain storm well into twilight. It had to be ready for the opening and it was!

There have been so many concrete pours at Powerland with his name on supervision and finishing that it’s a bit humbling! Small jobs like pedestals, big jobs like large building floors, and the big one of them all, the Mt. Emily with its multiple levels and pours. And even before the pours, came the design and the composing of the rebar scheme.

The Mt. Emily foundation was like a creation in rebar “artscaping.” Tom said that we would know that the end of the task was at hand, when you couldn’t see through the rebar! It was true! That job took time! Cutting, tying and more rebar cutting and tying. Intricate detail! For confirmation ask the rest of the crew, Charlie Philpot, Bill Roberts or Mike Oxborrow.

And it is Tom’s attention to detail and accuracy that is a hallmark feature of his work. His insistence to check tolerances to the uninitiated can be puzzling. After all, this is Powerland. Not a lot is perfect here! To the contrary, Tom believes “there is no reason to be satisfied with low quality work at Powerland. We need to be proud of what we do here.”

That attention to detail has served us well at Powerland. But where does this dedication to “doing it right” come from. Most of us would say “what are a few 1/16th’s of an inch anyway!” Then in addition to attention to detail, there is Tom’s energy, productivity and commitment.

What motivates him to dedicate such talent and time to a museum of all places? And those long days that he puts in! Often after the day’s project, he is off to some partner museum meeting in the evening. Most people put fewer hours in on their jobs! Most probably his energy and productivity exceed any of his predecessors.

The answer is to be found in his love for “old” things, a deep appreciate for how vintage tools, mechanisms and machinery were developed and used, and as the real motivator, the desire to witness an authentic line shaft shop operating on steam power. Tom is waiting upon the day when he is able to demonstrate how machine shops operated one hundred years ago!

Now let’s go back and travel through the years with Tom. He grew up on the Oregon coast, largely Nehalem and Tillamook, with five siblings. He commented about the availability of good sports facilities in Nehalem’s schools and his interest in sports. However the major influence on his youth and impact upon his career and life came from his Dad. His apprenticeship training for both living and working was to be acquired under his father’s tutorage.

Tom’s father was a logger before, and a carpenter and contractor after the War, the WW II conflict. Tom stated that his Dad said little about the conflict after returning home. Like many returning servicemen, he only hoped that his boys would not have to experience the horrors of warfare.

However he did leave a legacy of experiences in letters sent to Tom’s Mom which unfortunately became lost with time. However there is one interesting story that wasn’t lost, being eventually printed twice in the Tillamook Harold. The first time was during the war and the second time on the 50^th anniversary of the event.

On a particular day while Tom’s father was on the front lines in the Philippines, he raised his rifle to fire when it appeared to jam upon firing. When time allowed, examination of the gun showed that there were two bullets in the barrel, one directed outward and one directed inward. Tom’s father had been fired upon by an enemy sniper with that bullet entering the barrel just as his weapon was being fired. Definitely an occurrence to contemplate!

The point of this story of course is that his father most probably would not have returned if it had not been for this amazing happening! And as Tom said, without his father’s impact on his life, yet to largely play out, the direction that his life took would have been quite different!

So his Dad returned and became a builder. And Tom’s career began as a ”grunt” working for his Dad when not attending school. In the beginning, the crew was paid $3 an hour, not bad for the 50’s. His job was to “not let the carpenters run out of nails”! A number of us volunteering on projects with Tom have been told the same thing. “If you let the nails run out, I am going home!”

Surprise, his Dad was a bit of a perfectionist! Tom was taught to put the edge of the saw blade on the center of the fine line and how to ”sharpen his pencil.” His father insisted on using Yankee drills. He expected to see 33 feet of trim installed hourly regardless of number of cuts or complexity of the wall configuration.

Tom can recall his brother being told that “today you will trim out the house at such and such an address”. His brother said that he finished that job yesterday. Tom’s Dad repeated himself. “Today you will do trim at that address”. His brother said no more. When he arrived at the site, he found that his father had torn out all the door and window trim in the entire house, being unhappy with the quality of work. Guess where Tom learned to strive for near perfection on the job!

Tom went on to become competent in the many aspects of constructing houses. As he commented, in those days the builder did just about everything from beginning to end. Foundation, framing, walls, doors and windows, cabinets, fixtures, trim, the works! At age twelve, he was installing hardwood floors. In time, he learned to remember every dimension and cut associated with a job.

He was becoming an experienced contractor hands-on for the time when he would be on his own. And that was to happen all too soon! His father passed away when Tom was nineteen years old. Tom had completed schooling in Woodburn and a career as a contractor was next.

On the personal side, Tom married a young lady by the name of Betty in 1965. They would eventually have four children of their own. Today Betty is still there supporting his interests and patiently waiting for him to complete that job at Powerland which needs to be finished before calling it a day!

Back to his career path, as Tom stated, “I worked one manufacturing job at a ladder factory”. However that was to be short lived and contractor work ensued. Projects got bigger and more numerous. In time, he added concrete contracting to his repertoire. For a time, he upgraded service stations under a contract with ARCO. To follow was the construction of restaurants, laundromats and agricultural buildings.

Tom worked on highway bridges and for a time, contracted at the Camas, Washington paper plant. As he describes his career pursuits, paper mills were followed by aluminum plants, bridges, highways and piers over the period 1980 to 1993. Between 1989 and 1993, he worked in Hawaii on bridges and then construction of a large pier for the US Navy on a piece of waterfront property adjacent to the USS Arizona Memorial. It is now being used as the dock for the USS Missouri (Memorial).

This was lucrative work for Tom so upon returning to his home, he “coasted” for a while. It was during this time that he joined the International Wood Collectors Society, a hobby in which he still participates. He says that over the years, he has collected some exceptional specimens of wood from around the globe.

Tom has always been interested in “old stuff” going back to his childhood, his interests being wide spread in that regard. At one time, he owned a massive stamp collection that covered the period from 1847 to 1989. An unfortunate house fire left a goodly amount of the collection previously worth many thousands of dollars but a pile of ashes and burned stacks of stamps.

In chatting about old stuff, Tom says that he likes anything that operates, and believes that operating the vintage equipment at Powerland is a significant attractive feature for the site. Oil Pulls are of particular interest. Tools are special! A few years past, Tom bought a complete vintage machine shop full of 1800’s tools. He has yet to really go through the collection.

Tom has been coming to Powerland for about 26 years. He said that on one occasion, one old codger “chewed” him out for asking a question. He stayed away for a number of years. But he did eventually come back in time to get involved in the final stages of the sawmill rebuild.

Yours truly had scheduled a Development Committee meeting on a rare week day. This guy walked up and said “do you mind if I join you.” It was Tom. He did and has been with us since.

Thanks, Tom for all that you have contributed to Powerland! There is much more to be accomplished!