A decades-old decision to support Forestry students continues to make a difference today. In 1989 Ralph Cochran and his wife Elizabeth endowed a scholarship for graduate students, and today Shaghayegh Akhatari is using those funds to pursue her research in wood science.
Shaghayegh’s work focuses on how to use sawmill and logging residues to generate energy in a way that maximizes social benefits and minimizes the environmental footprint. “Following my Masters in Industrial Engineering, I discovered the Industrial Engineering Research Group at UBC, and learned that my major could be important to the forest industry,” she says. “I’m in the second year of my PhD, working with Dr. Taraneh Sowlati.”
“This scholarship has lightened my financial burden and allowed me to focus on learning. More importantly it has been an emotional boost and encouragement for me to work harder,” she says. “I hope that one day I will be able to help a student get closer to their goals as this family has helped me.”
Now age 95, Ralph Cochran struck out on his own at 16, armed with only a grade 8 education. “My family situation wasn’t the best, and I needed to make my own way,” he says. Ralph lied about his age in order to get work, but even so found it hard going during the Depression.
“I was originally going to become a blacksmith,” he says, “but I got laid off because there were married men out of work and the boss thought they needed the job more than I did.” Forest industry hiring halls were hard to get into, but eventually Ralph got a job at a logging camp.
Another obstacle appeared when Ralph decided to become a log scaler. After a year of independent self-study, he was denied the opportunity to take the exam because scaling jobs were being held for returning World War II veterans.
“So I went to night school to study grading,” he says. The Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau (PLIB) offered him a job on Vancouver Island, but with a young family he couldn’t move immediately. “The head of the PLIB decided I wasn’t good inspector material, and I didn’t get a job there until eight years later.”
Ralph’s career as a lumber inspector began in 1954 and lasted until his retirement in 1984. PLIB inspectors certified lumber for export, and also certified the wood that went into BC schools, dams that used lumber, and cribs lining public utility trenches.
“We worked on site at every mill, and each job could last from a few months to a couple of years,” he says. “Some jobs were in the Lower Mainland and easy to get to, but others were very remote and you wouldn’t have contact with your family for months at a time.”
Job security was hard to come by in those days. “People could be fired for the smallest things, like being late for a shift due to circumstances beyond your control,” he says. Ralph became active in the Lumber Inspectors Union, and advocated for inspectors who were threatened with dismissal.
Ralph is satisfied with his decision to endow a scholarship for Forestry students. “We did a lot of research, and considered several alternatives before choosing UBC,” he says. “Forestry is a great career for anyone.