James Howard Harless (October 14, 1919 – January 1, 2014), better known as Buck Harless, was an American coal and timber operator and philanthropist, who was renowned in the area of his hometown of Gilbert, West Virginia, for his extensive contributions to schools, churches, healthcare and education programs.
Starting out his career working with coal mining and coal preparation, Harless saved up money and eventually invested in a sawmill where he produced mining equipment. After having managed his lumber company for several years, he sold the business to Georgia-Pacific and signed a non-compete clause which disallowed him from producing timber in the area for a period of 10 years. He instead established sawmills in South America and Central America, and returned to the mining industry as an executive. He also founded and acquired several other companies in a number of different industries, which were managed under the conglomerate International Industries. Outside of his own companies, he was active in banks and healthcare systems, and sat on the boards of colleges and universities, including West Virginia University, Marshall University, Davis & Elkins College and Concord University.
A staunch Republican supporter, Harless was instrumental in allowing George W. Bush to win the traditionally Democratic state of West Virginia in the 2000 presidential election, in an upset victory which awarded Bush the narrow margin by which he defeated Democrat Al Gore. Harless had undertaken a large fundraising effort to prevent Gore from winning, as he feared that his prominent environmentalist policies would destroy the coal industry and, in turn, West Virginia's coal-heavy economy. Harless had previously been influential in the elections of governors Cecil H. Underwood and Arch Moore in the 1980s and 1996, in some of only a few governors' elections since the Great Depression where West Virginia voters chose the Republican nominee.
Early life and career James Howard Harless was born in Taplin, West Virginia, on October 14, 1919, to Pearly J. Harless and Bessie, née Brown. His father worked in logging, and, at age 66, had already been married once with three children, before he married Harless' mother when she was around 17 years old. Following Harless' birth, his mother contracted pneumonia, and died aged 21, when Harless was four months old. Harless recalled that his father "felt he couldn't keep all three" of his children and remarried once again, bringing Harless' older brother with him to a farm in South Point, Ohio, while his sister was raised by a relative in Charleston, and Harless was adopted by one of his aunts. He was raised by the sister of his late mother, Rosa, and her husband, George Erastus Ellis. George worked with timber rafting, however as a result of the Great Depression, he was unable to find work while Harless was in high school, and instead raised cows and pigs, later working as a carpenter until his retirement. They lived first in Mallory, in Logan County, but later moved to Gilbert, in Mingo County, when Harless was two years old. Harless attended Gilbert High School, from which he graduated in 1937. He had planned to later attend Marshall University in Huntington, and tried out unsuccessfully for a football scholarship at the school. He was not able to afford the cost of attending it.
He worked first at a local garage, and at a wrecker service, before working for several years at Red Jacket Coal Company, where he worked for his first six months with the cleaning of steel and machines, and keeping the production line free of falling slate. He worked then with dumping coal at a nearby mine for six months, before being transferred to the company's engineering department, where he stayed for a period of six years. He saved up a sum of $500 while working at Red Jacket, and gave up mining in 1947, to become a part-owner and manager of a Gilbert saw-mill. He laid the foundation for Gilbert Lumber Company, with the help of what he later recalled as "$500 and a one-horse sawmill."
Business career International Industries In 1947, Harless founded the Gilbert Lumber Company, where he produced mining equipment with the help of his sawmill. That same year, he also founded International Industries, which he grew over the years into a multimillion-dollar conglomerate. Harless served as president of Gilbert Lumber Company, until 1966, when he sold the company to Georgia-Pacific, who had offered to buy the company, as well as Harless' timber rights in the area, the previous year. As part of the contract signed with Georgia-Pacific, Harless was barred from conducting lumber business in the area for a period of 10 years, and instead chose to establish sawmills in South America at the advice of his son Larry. By the late 70s, he had set up sawmill operations in Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras and Ecuador. His sawmill operation in Brazil was located in the town of Abaetetuba, and its lumber was shipped via a vessel owned by Harless to a division of his company Gilbert Imported Hardwoods in Mobile, Alabama. He founded International Resources, a subsidiary of International Industries that operated in the coal industry, in 1966, and entered the mining industry that same year.
International Industries was Harless' primary business entity, and as of March 2008 it was made up of more than 15 different companies. Subsidiaries and associated companies of International Industries in the coal industry included Lynn Land Company, Jumacris Mining, Kitchekan Fuel, Hampden Coal and Chafin Branch Coal. International Industries also owned Benson International, which was the parent company of a number of subsidiaries in the trailer manufacturing and automotive industries, which also included service centers, dump body manufacturers and auto parts retailers. These included Benson Manufacturing, which was acquired in 1985 as Benson Truck Bodies, and International Trailers, which was founded by International Industries in 1990, as well as Worldwide Equipment. In 1986, Harless purchased Logan & Kanawha Coal Company, which was made a subsidiary of International Industries with sales agent and marketing roles. International Industries also owned a gun shop, and a weapons manufacturing company in South Korea. Guns imported by Harless from South Korea included the USAS-12, which was rejected by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on grounds of a "lack of a sporting purpose." It also had holdings in the hotel and real estate industries.
He sold the conglomerate in 2007. Its coal division was bought by the private-equity firm Lightfoot Capital Partners and renamed International Resource Partners, being officially acquired by the company on June 12. Harless remained as chairman of the company past its acquisition by Lightfoot Capital Partners, however, and is known to have served until at least 2011, at which point the company was sold again. He transferred the ownership of Gilco Lumber Company to businessman Everett Hannah in 2009.
Banking career In 1973, Harless formed Gilbert Bank & Trust, which was the first bank in Gilbert since the bankruptcy of the previous one in 1929. Harless served as chairman of the bank starting that same year, and remained until 1987, at which point Gilbert Bank & Trust merged into the Matewan National Bank. Harless had been a director of Matewan since at least 1974, and remained as director following the merger. Harless was also chairman of the American National Bank of Logan in the 1980s, chairman of Guyan Bancshares, Inc. from 1984 to 1987, and a director of the National Bank of West Virginia in Morgantown. In 1984, he offered to buy the National Bank of Logan together with one his partners, for a price of $18 million.
Board memberships In March 1968, Harless was named to the board of trustees of the non-profit healthcare system Appalachian Regional Hospitals, which provided healthcare services to medically indigent patients free of charge. Serving first until November 1972, he was reelected to the board in 1973, as well as 1975. He was elected chairman of the board in 1974, and is known to have served as chairman until at least 1976. Harless retired as chairman of Appalachian Regional Hospitals in 1977, however he continued to serve as a member of its board.
In 1977, Harless was elected to the board of directors of C&P Telephone. As of 1987, he was still serving as a director of the company. He also served on the advisory boards of Norfolk Southern Corporation and the West Virginia Center for Arts and Sciences.
In May 2001 he was appointed to the Massey Energy board of directors, where he served as chairman of the Public and Environmental Policy Committee, and as a member of the Governance Committee. Originally elected to serve on the board until 2006, he announced his premature resignation in February 2005.
Harless was a member of the board of the West Virginia University Foundation for a total of 19 years, and served as chairman from 1982 to 1985. Prior to his chairmanship, Harless served as vice chairman of the board, where he is known to have been in office as of 1976, as well as 1981. He is known to have been a member of the board until at least 2004, and had also been appointed to the university's advisory board in 1979, where he served as member and chairman sometime before 1987. He was also a board member of Davis & Elkins College from 1985 to 1989, of the Concord College Foundation as of 1976, as well as a former chairman of the board of advisors of Marshall University. Having been appointed a member of the board in 1987, he was elected chairman in 1989, for the term 1989–1990. He served through 1990, as well as 1991, and was reelected again that same year. Serving until at least 1992, Harless was no longer serving as chairman of the board as of 1994, however he is known to have been a member of the board until at least October 1996. As chairman of the board of advisors, Harless headed the Presidential Search Committee in 1990, which led the search for a new president of the university, and took measures which included employing Heidrick & Struggles to assist in the process. He was also a member of the Marshall University Foundation, to which he was first appointed in 1979, and then reelected for a three-year term in 1981, as well as three years later in 1984. Having at some point left the board, Harless returned as a newly elected member in 1990, and is known to have served in 1997, as well as 2001. In 2004 he was described as a former member of the foundation.
Political career Early state politics (1950s–1970s) In 1958, Harless is known to have served as chairman of West Virginia governor Cecil H. Underwood's Governor's Forest Fire Prevention Conference, where he served alongside future circuit judge Kenneth Keller Hall among others. Harless was also a member of the West Virginia Forest Industries Committee as of 1958, where he was known to have still been serving as of 1962, and was reappointed in 1967. He served on the board of the West Virginia Forest Council, to which he was reelected for a three-year term in 1959, and was also elected chairman of the Extension Service Committee of Mingo County in that year.