Our Story - FSOil

In early

2016,

the patriarch of the Iverson family, Ross Iverson, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He was sent home with end-of-life pharmaceuticals which managed his pain but left him completely incapacitated and lethargic. He was given less than two weeks to live.

Desperate to find something better for their father, siblings Ken, Barb, Nels, and Paul Iverson reached out to their cousins, Tim and Ian Shaughnessy, who had recently begun making CBD products at their Portland extraction facility. The Iversons were hesitant to use cannabis-related products, but they were willing to try anything that might help their dad. Tim gave his cousins the CBD capsules, and with both fear and hope, they took them home to Ross.

2016

Within a couple of days, Ross was out of bed on his own, sitting at the table eating breakfast. Within two weeks, he was riding around the family’s annual Tulip Festival in the gator. Family, friends, and the community shared 42 quality, lucid, days with Ross before he passed. Though the science behind these results was not fully understood, Ross’s family believed this improvement was a result of CBD.

Later that year, Iverson Family Farms added industrial hemp to the long list of crops grown on the family’s land since 1950. In 2016, attitudes toward hemp were still evolving and hemp was often lumped in with marijuana. There was certainly an element of risk involved in planting that first crop, but the family couldn’t turn away from what they had seen CBD do for their father and the potential effects it could have on the lives of others. So, they grew and harvested.

2017

In late 2016, they set up their first CO2 extractor in an unused out-building down on the farm. It was an exciting time, but the challenges faced were only beginning. The very first extraction machine was a 90-liter prototype, but it wasn’t quite doing the job – so the family imported two 150-liter extractors and up a post-processing lab laid the foundation for what would eventually become FSOil.

Since that first 90-liter machine, the FSOil team has designed or customized additional extraction machines, filtration systems, solvent recovery systems, cold traps, in-line winterization systems, hemp harvesting, drying and processing systems, and numerous hemp cultivation innovations.

In just three years of operation, FSOil has built two world-class facilities and supplies several of the most reputable CBD companies in the country. FSOil associates with local, state, and federal politicians aiming to both learn and educate others. The facility is toured by groups from all over the the world looking for a blueprint for the industrial hemp CBD industry. As one of the most accredited hemp operations in the world; FSOil continues to evolve and lead with its unique ingenuity and trademark warmth and openness.

2020

2019

To this day you will find each of the founding owners working at the facility or on the farm – side by side with the next generation; not because they have to, but because they want to. To love what you get to do every day with the knowledge you are helping others is perhaps the greatest gift you could ever hope for. It’s an incredible story of how 42 days in one life changed and continue to change all the days going forward in the lives of so many others.

On May 12, 2020, the lives of our FSOil family changed forever when co-owner and CEO, Tim Shaughnessy, was in an accident resulting in a traumatic brain injury. Tim’s zest for life proved strong and he worked hard through months of rehab. Sadly, a shunt that was implanted in his brain failed and despite the efforts of Tim’s medical team to reverse the resulting actions, they could not. Tim lost the fight on June 12, 2021.

Tim will be deeply missed and will always be remembered for his pioneering spirit in this new industry. He brought tremendous knowledge and experience with an upbeat attitude that never wavered. He loved what cannabis could do to help others and shared all his knowledge with whomever asked (even his potential competitors).

As the person who brought us all together to “make oil and ship oil” and to “work hard, play fair, and always deliver,” we are thankful. Tim made us all better people through his enthusiasm, passion, and kindness – and although our hearts are broken, they are also full.