Young Virginia logger Hunter Williams attained his childhood aspiration
There’s a certain youthful exuberance evident in Hunter Williams, 28, the owner of Williams Tree Harvesters LLC. The fresh-faced entrepreneur has a big, enthusiastic smile when he talks about the first time he saw a logging crew working when he was only a child. That was when he knew what he wanted to do with his life.
“When I was a kid we had a piece of land behind where I grew up and they came and logged it,” he recalls. Though not a logger, his dad worked for International Paper, so he had some connection to the business. But this was the first time Williams had actually seen a logging operation in action. “I sat there and watched how that job was done and ever since that it always fascinated me. I always wanted to get into it.”
Still, it wasn’t a sure thing, or a straight line to his goal. First he went to college in South Carolina. He studied business but says he didn’t really know what he wanted to pursue there. A year before he would have finished his degree, he moved back home to help care for his mother, who had become ill. That meant getting a job.
“In college I realized I didn’t want to work for anybody,” he admits. “This is what I wanted to do, so I made the leap and hoped for the best. I didn’t need a degree to do this.” Intent on going into business for himself, he bought his first forestry mulching machine at age 22.
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