Founder of Doman Industries honoured as 'trailblazer'

Former lumber baron Herb Doman, who died Wednesday night in the southern Vancouver Island community of Duncan, is being honoured as one of the giants of B.C.'s forest industry.

Doman, 76,the son of Sikh immigrants, built Doman Industries Ltd. from a one-truck hauling operation in 1955 into a sprawling forestry empire on Vancouver Island and the B.C. coast.

Former NDP provincial cabinet minister Moe Sihota, a lifelong friend, described Doman as a trailblazer.

"I think he opened doors for Indo-Canadians in business, no doubt about it. You know, he was a trailblazer in that sense," Sihota told CBC News Thursday.

"He demonstrated that people in our community had business acumen and helped others who had that skill base to walk down the path he created."

Duncan Mayor Phil Kent said Doman was a forest industry pioneer with a deep commitment to his community.

"They employed at their peak over 4,000 people on the Island. They also had made a very significant commitment to the City of Duncan," Kent told CBC News on Thursday.

Doman Industries had 6,000 employees at its peak, but over-expansion pushed the company deep into debt and Doman himselfsuffered strokes in 1997 and 2000, forcing him to turn the operation of the company over to his son, Rick.

Efforts to keep Doman afloat while $1 billion in debt failed and the new owners of what would become Western Forest Products got rid of Doman's pulp assets and now operate a slimmed-down lumber producer.

Doman got into hot water with securities regulators in 1988 after a buyout by U.S.-based Louisiana-Pacific Corp. fell through.

In a case that took 11 years to settle, he was fined $1 million and barred briefly from running his own company for tipping former B.C. premier Bill Bennett and his brother Russell that the $250-million deal had collapsed.

The Bennetts, who dumped their Doman shares before the official announcement, were also sanctioned but all three were acquitted of criminal charges.