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 Don O. Carlson |
Don O. Carlson
(Donald Otto Carlson)
Don was born in Gary, Indiana,
completed high school in Gary, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism,
History, and English from Indiana University. His first job was as a spot news reporter on
the Walla Walla Washington Union Bulletin Newspaper, and he also served the
paper as a roving reporter covering northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington. He
then served on a general magazine in the midwest called Inside Michigan and
subsequently joined Vance Publishing Corporation in Chicago in the early ‘50s. He was
an editor on a series of building industry publications including American Lumberman
(later called Home Center), Wood & Wood Products magazine
and Automation in Housing & Manufactured Home Dealer Magazine from
offices in Chicago and New York.
Don later worked in major national
advertising and public relations agencies, with a specialty in handling national
associations and building products manufacturers, such as the Architectural Aluminum
Manufacturers Association, the American Hardboard Association and the Insulation Board
Institute. He founded his own enterprise in public relations in 1964, and the company in
1974 purchased Automation In Housing Magazine and Systems Building
News Magazine and merged them together. The name of Automation In Housing
& Manufactured Home Dealer Magazine was changed to Automated Builder on
August 1, 1988. The publication is owned and operated by CMN Associates, Inc., an
Illinois corporation founded in 1964. CMN Associates, Inc. moved to Carpinteria, CA in
March 1980 and to Ventura, CA in November 1997. CMN is owned 100% by Donald O. and Agnes
O. Carlson. Don is president, Agnes is secretary/treasurer, and son Lance P. Carlson is
vice president and advertising manager and son Scott B. Carlson is vice president and
business manager.
Don serves as both the working
editor and publisher of Automated Builder which is the only national
publication covering all seven segments of housing including: (1) Production Builders, (2)
Panelized Home Manufacturers, (3) HUD-Code (mobile) Home Manufacturers, (4) Modular Home
Manufacturers, (5) Component Manufacturers, (6) Special Unit (commercial) Manufacturers,
and (7)MH Builders and Builders/Dealers.
He is a member of the Society of
Professional Journalists (Sigma Delta Chi), and has been named winner of five national
journalism awards including one in the early 1950s for his national coverage of the
Lu-Re-Co system of construction, a forerunner of many panelized home manufacturing
operations. He was awarded an honorary plaque in 1978 for his promotion of the goals of
the structural wood components industry by the Truss Plate Institute and the Component
Manufacturers Council. He was named to the Hall of Fame by the Wood Truss Council of
America in 1988, and he was elected to the Suppliers Board of Governors of the
Manufactured Housing Institute in 1989.
He established through Automated
Builder the annual Achievement in Housing Award in 1974, the National Roof Truss
and Floor Truss Production Awards in 1977, the Regional and National Manufactured Home
Sales Center Awards in 1984, and the International Exposed Wood Truss Competition in
1992.
He has served as editor and
publisher of Automated Builder Magazine since 1974, and he published the Automated
Builder Dictionary/Encyclopedia of Industrialized Housing in 1982 which was
revised, expanded and republished in 1991 and again in 1995. He published the book ‘How
to Start an Inner city Housing Plant’ in 1999 and the book on SAVED
(Shelter All Victims of Emergencies and Disasters) in 2000, and ‘How & Why
to Buy a Factory Built Home’ in 2001. He was active in the Building Systems
Councils of the National Association of Home builders; the Wood Truss Council of America,
and the Wood Foundation Institute which he co-founded in 1980. He has conducted five study
missions to the advanced industrialized housing producers in Japan (1984-1988), led the
first two independent housing study missions to the Peoples Republic of China in 1986 and
1987, and visited and reported on the advanced housing and component plants in Finland in
1992, and again in 2000.
In 1993 Don was a founder of the
Automated Builders Consortium dedicated to establishing free-enterprise housing factories
inside America’s inner cities to help solve multiple urban problems.
In October 1994 the Japanese Export
Trade Organization invited Carlson to tour Japan again in an effort to encourage Japanese
home builders to import homes from the United States and Canada. In February 1995 at the
invitation of Pryda (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, Vic., Carlson toured the component and
housing industry in Australia. In December 1995 he toured the housing industries in Hong
Kong, Singapore and Maylasia concerning joint ventures and import/export opportunities for
North American builders. In February/March 1996 Carlson returned to Japan to cover the
Rokko Island Model Home Village established to help rebuild earthquake ravaged Kobe with homes from many
nations. Carlson returned in Sept./Oct., ’96 to Tokyo and Yokohama with American
builders to work on home shipments to Japan. In 1997 and 1998 he toured Italy, France,
Spain, New Zealand and Australia and in 1999 toured Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Aruba
and Puerto Rico and in 2000 Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Rhodes, Cyprus and Santorini. He was
named ‘Factory-Built Housing Man of the Century’ by the Allen Newsletter in
December 1999. Carlson was named one of the four charter members of the Hall of Fame of
the Modular Building Institute in 2001.
A printed and mailed publication
since 1964, Automated Builder Magazine was converted totally to
the world wide internet. The publication is available in 51 languages as of
November 2009. On the internet the magazine has two divisions; Automated
Builder at Home is aimed at homeowners; and Automated Builder In
Plant is aimed at in-plant firms which produce engineered structures for
both residential and commercial needs.
The fourth edition of the
Automated Builder Directory/Encyclopedia of Industrialized Housing is
now underway.
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