Talking with someone who came before you can provide perspective and a sense of history. Carolyn Beach of Westside Pallet in California experienced this reality as she researched and talked with the first woman to chair the National Wooden Pallet & Container Association (NWPCA). Beach has recently taken over the top industry spot on the NWPCA Board and is the second woman to lead the association in its history.
While women are taking an even more important role in the pallet sector over the past decade, many people may not know that the first woman to chair the national association did so in 1998.
Susan Larson has the unique distinction of being the first female president and chairperson of the National Wooden Pallet and Container Association (NWPCA). She held the position in 1998 and served as the president of the Western Pallet Association (WPA). Larson was a key leader in the family business as a manager and salesperson. Her family built, ran and eventually sold Larson Pallet, now Larson Packaging, which services the pallet, crate and packaging needs of the Silicon Valley region in California. She graduated from UC Berkeley and had a career as a CPA before joining the pallet company. Through her career at Larson Pallet, she held sales, HR, tax and accounting positions.
Dealing mainly with customers, Susan lived in a pretty progressive area of the country. “I seldom ran into any issues being perceived as a woman. Those days, you had to ignore whatever might come your way,” commented Larson.
But as she rose to prominence in the industry, Susan Larson already felt like she belonged. When she was appointed as the first female chairperson of NWPCA in 1998, she recalled, “By then, I knew people who were attending the NWPCA meeting, it felt like family. I was always included. I never felt special being the first woman in the position. I felt protected. I wasn’t out trying to prove a darn thing.”
Twenty-four years later, the NWPCA has chosen a second female chairperson, Carolyn Beach. She is a past president of the WPA and the vice president of operations for Westside Pallet, Inc.
Recently, Susan Larson was invited to meet Carolyn Beach at Westside Pallet while on her visit to California. Beach said, “She is a very intelligent woman and we had great conversations during the tour of my facility and at lunch. We bonded over the fact that we had similar stories about how we came into the pallet business. Our fathers had changed careers when they saw there was a lucrative business in recycling and manufacturing pallets. We went to work for our fathers in the administrative and accounting aspect of the businesses.”
Beach continued, “She had nothing but positive words about her time on the NWPCA board. And she did say that it was like a family. While the industry has changed, I think that the attitude of feeling like we are a pallet family is definitely the same.”
For Beach, another female in the field has had a great impact on her career. Beach declared, “Kathleen Dietrich of Commercial Lumber and Pallet has given me the most inspiration. She was vice president of the WPA the first year I attended the annual meeting, and we have become friends ever since. That was a time when there were not a lot of women in the industry leadership. It is encouraging to see more women getting involved.”
Beyond working in a largely male dominated industry, Susan Larson jumped into aviation in the 1970s. Over the years, Larson has flown competitively in the Air Race Classic. This competition is designed for women ages 17 to 90 years old and is based on the old powder puff derby. It was first flown in 1929 by Amelia Earhart and others of her generation. It was a speed race for women in limited HP planes.
“You are flying in the daytime only, under visual flight rules. It is unbelievably strategic. I usually place in the top 10. I won a smaller race back in the 1990s. It was fluky how we won that one, it was luck,” remembered Larson. “What you think might be a huge setback could actually aid you in winning.”
Larson once flew in a race in 2016 with a new engine, it failed over a field in Missouri. “We had to do an emergency landing and hope for the best. It was a rough field and the nose wheel caught in a divot in the ground,” recalled Larson. She didn’t discover it was a crimped fuel line that caused the engine to surge and eventually quit until two years later when the National Transportation Safety Board came out with its report.
While visiting with Carolyn Beach, Larson shared stories of aviation. For example, during a flight to Boston for a NWPCA summer meeting, she heard JFK Jr. had just died in a plane crash within hours of her occupying the same air space. In 2020, Larson was flying in the Los Angeles area in the same poor visibility on the same morning that Kobe Bryant died. She remembered the air space in that area was congested.
Carolyn Beach stated, “The most memorable part of the conversation during our lunch was the fact that she survived a plane crash. She was able to land her plane when it was going down. She is a strong woman, and I have a lot of respect for her. I have no doubt we will get together another time.”
With more women in the industry, Beach wants to encourage them to join national organizations and committees as well as attend annual meetings. She added, “The speaker programs and the networking that takes place are invaluable.” At the top spot this year, Beach plans to continue fostering an environment where women are able to lead and contribute to the industry as a whole.
