If Americans who perform good deeds create a “point of light,” the Pamplin family represents a starburst.

The Pamplins rank among the nation’s wealthiest families, yet the distinction Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. seeks is to be the nation’s most creative philanthropists - an individual who gives his full potential in money, time and talent. The family's business success would imply it has the ability to make that happen.

Today, Dr. Pamplin runs the R.B. Pamplin Corp., a Fortune 400 private company. Among its holdings are 18 textile mills, operations in sand and gravel mining, concrete and asphalt production, Christian bookstores, a Christian recording label and a family-oriented video production company. The R.B. Pamplin Corporation donates 10% of its pre-tax profits - $6 million to $10 million each year - to nearly 200 charities and causes nationwide.

The late Robert B. Pamplin, Sr. was born into a Dinwiddie County, Virginia, farming family and went to college at Virginia Polytechnic Institute where he studied business. He had a classmate who hailed from Augusta, Georgia where his family had decided to start a lumber business. The new enterprise needed a trained young business mind, and Robert Pamplin, Sr. was offered a position there.

Georgia Hardwood Lumber prospered and so did Mr. Pamplin. The company became Georgia-Pacific corporation and Robert Pamplin, Sr. rose to become CEO of the giant corporation, eventually moving with the company to Portland, Oregon. Retiring from Georgia-Pacific in 1976 at the age of 65, he began the R.B. Pamplin Corporation with his son, Robert, Jr.

Raised in a Southern culture imbued with honor, loyalty and tradition, the younger Pamplin is a self-proclaimed disciple of his father. The elder Pamplin taught his son to ignore status and wealth, even as they accumulated it. He also instilled in him a love of the business world, appearing in his son’s bedroom with the Wall Street Journal and a copy of Standard and Poor’s Stock Guide while most parents were reading bedtime stories to their children. When the younger Pamplin was sick with hepatitis for a year at age 12, his father read him annual reports.

Early lessons made the younger Pamplin a shrewd businessman. While still in college, he invested money inherited from his grandmother in the stock market and then invested his profits in Southern timber just before its value shot up. Before he left college, Robert Pamplin, Jr. was already a millionaire.

Today, Dr. Pamplin’s resume is nearly an inch thick and includes pages of accomplishments and awards. He has authored 12 books, founded the Christ Community Church, of which he is Senior Pastor, and holds eight degrees including three bachelor’s of science, three master’s and two doctorates.

The Pamplins' generosity has touched scores of families from coast to coast. In Virginia, the Pamplins are the biggest benefactors of Robert Pamplin, Sr.’s alma mater, Virginia Tech. They have given more than $28 million to the University, which named its business school after the family. Additionally, every one of Virginia’s more than 300 public high schools offers one senior a $1,000 Pamplin Scholarship to Virginia Tech each year.

The Pamplins' love for education and history is evident in their creation of Pamplin Historical Park & The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier, which is located only a few miles from the birthplace of Robert Pamplin, Sr. In the early 1800’s, the Pamplins' maternal ancestors, the Boisseau family, settled in Dinwiddie County and grew prosperous. The family lived at “Tudor Hall,” a 600-acre tobacco plantation which passed out of family hands soon after the Civil War. When the Pamplins became aware of the impending sale of the Tudor Hall tract in the early 1990’s, they saw an opportunity to combine their devotion to history, education and their own forebears to create a national treasure dedicated to the study of the Civil War and the common soldier of that conflict.

Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. at the Grand Opening of the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier

Dr. Robert Pamplin, Jr.’s business and philanthropic endeavors have been featured in the pages of Forbes Magazine. He gives generous sums of money each year to his home town of Portland, Oregon, and funds programs to feed the hungry. His benevolence also extends to the University of Portland and to Lewis and Clark College, which he has helped turn into a nationally-recognized institution. Dr. Pamplin has also funded billboard campaigns in Portland that depict role-models in the African-American community. He is also the largest contributor to the Oregon Symphony.

Four days each week, Dr. Pamplin dons a dark business suit and white shirt and goes to work at the R.B. Pamplin Corporation. On Friday mornings he heads west to Sherwood, Oregon, and the place he loves best: Twelve Oaks Farm, the headquarters of his Columbia Empire Farms, Oregon’s largest grower of berries and hazlenuts. In 1998, Dr. Pamplin opened on the grounds of the farm a small museum which houses a portion of his Asian and Native American art collection.

Like Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, Dr. Pamplin has been tinkering and adding to his farm complex. From a pool, tennis court and sports court to formal Italian, Japanese and Northwest gardens, the farm is always developing. Here in the rolling hills of the Northwest, Dr. Robert Pamplin, Jr. can be the gentleman farmer of his native South.