Kingwood Celebrates 40 Years!

Kingwood staff and families gathered in Little Rock in May to celebrate 40 years of service to our clients! We gathered at Cypress Social for dinner and an evening of celebration and fellowship. Retired founders Jim Foster and Pete Prutzman addressed everyone with a short history lesson on Kingwood, kind words to all the staff, and words of encouragement and congratulations.

Jim Foster shared a quote from an original Kingwood founding document. He read: “The purpose of Kingwood Forestry is to provide the opportunity for profitable and enjoyable careers for its staff and to create an environment that will allow each person on the staff to achieve personal goals and a high level of professional development.” For years, our Kingwood Vision has been “Personalized Service…Innovative Solutions…Enjoyable Careers”. We want our people to enjoy what they do and be thankful for a company that values them.

Pete Prutzman shared how proud he was of Kingwood for not just thinking about the next quarter, but the next quarter century, as well as for encouraging the professional development of our staff. He also shared, “In May 1983, Kingwood was a very different company than we are today. There were no computers, cell phones, no GPS, and no GIS. We would physically visit courthouses for ownership records and visit ASCS offices to look at black & white aerial photos. We began as a contracting company and with hard work, dedication, support of our families and clients, and some good luck, we evolved into a purely professional services company by 1998.”

Carl Herberg expressed sincere thanks to all employees for the level of personal and professional commitment towards Kingwood. Our employee actions underscore the sentiment that Kingwood is “we” not “they”. Carl also gave a special thanks to the wives of the present and retired owners: Wendy Herberg, Jamie McAlpine, Brittany Wright, Judy Foster, and Linda Prutzman. “Without their support,” he said, “there would be no Kingwood.” Thanks again, ladies. You are a class act!

In 1983, Kingwood began with six full-time staff and two offices. Today, we have twenty staff, three offices, and manage over a billion dollars of timberland. We have client relationships dating back to the 1960’s and have several clients who we have worked with for three or more generations. We transitioned from contracting services such as tree injecting, herbicide spraying and tree planting to our three core professional services today: Timberland Management, Real Estate Brokerage and Appraisal Services.

The ownership of Kingwood has successfully transitioned completely, indicating the longevity of Kingwood, as our logo implies. To all our clients, timber buyers, contractors, and mills: We sincerely thank you for your continued support and loyalty. We treasure our relationships with each of you and look forward to many more years to come as we all work together to be successful!