BANGOR, Maine — The former owner of paper mills in Brewer and Lincoln died last week in Charleston, South Carolina, after a period of declining health.
Joseph Hall Torras, also of Shelbourne, Massachusetts, died Sept. 2 at the age of 89, according to his obituary.
Born in Georgia, Torras served as a pilot in the U.S. Navy during WW II. He was trained to fly the TBF Avenger and flew anti-submarine missions in the Atlantic theater. He then attended Yale University, where he was a member of the varsity swim team, graduating in 1948 with a degree in egineering.
Torras began a 53-year career in the paper industry after earning his master’s in business administration from the Harvard Business School, graduating in 1950. Through 1963, he held key management positions with the St. Regis Paper and Brown Paper Companies.
In 1964, he struck out on his own and purchased the Premoid Corp., a struggling paper mill in West Springfield, Massachusetts, his obituary said. Within four years, he had the mill running profitably.
In 1969, he took another risk and bought Lincoln Pulp & Paper in Lincoln. At the time of the purchase, the mill was completely shut down, and the small, remote town was desperate to find jobs for 880 millworkers. Torras restarted the mill and ran it successfully for the next 35 years.
In April of 1989, Torras acquired Eastern Fine Paper Co. in Brewer. From 1989 through 2004, the Brewer and Lincoln paper mills were operated as subsidiaries of Eastern Pulp & Paper Corp. under Torras, according to the Bangor Daily News archives.
In September of 2000, however, Eastern Pulp & Paper filed for protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. In January of 2004, the corporation closed both mills.
The former Brewer mill now operates as the Cianbro Constructors-Module Manufacturing Facility and the Lincoln facility now operates as Lincoln Paper and Tissue LLC.
Torras was predeceased by his wife, Mary “Mitzi” Ravenel Robertson, in 2011. He is survived by three children, Mary Martin Torras of New York City; Fernanda Torras Harrington and her husband, John Harrington, of Warner, New Hampshire; and Joseph “Pepe” Hill Torras Jr. and his wife, Michele Torras, of Amherst, Massachusetts; as well as eight grandchildren.