Chamber director set to retire

It’s been nearly three decades since Carol Pike took the reins of the Columbia Falls Area Chamber of Commerce as its part-time director.

Back then, the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. was one of the city’s largest employers. Manufacturing businesses such as SmartLam, ViZn Energy, Proof Research and Nomad Global Communications Solutions are the new economic drivers for the Columbia Falls area, while the Plum Creek and F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co. mills continue going strong.

Pike said Columbia Falls has always taken a “kinder and gentler” approach to welcoming new industries.

“As long as they meet environmental regulations, we welcome new business,” she said. “We want to live and work and play together.”

Last year, Xanterra Parks and Resorts converted the former Pamida store into offices for its 30 full-time employees. Tourism is strong and growing, Pike said — the Chamber’s visitor center is the third largest distributor of Travel Montana publications.

Pike has been a constant presence for the business group — her nickname is “The Chamber Mom.” But her days as the Chamber’s executive director are coming to a close — she gave her board a one-year notice and is retiring in May.

“I feel very confident the Chamber will have a great future,” she said, adding that the Chamber is in good hands with Coram businesswoman Stacey Schnebel as board president and Mark Johnson as vice president and treasurer.

Pike recalled the disorganization that launched her Chamber career following upheaval in the late 1980s.

“We didn’t have a membership list — we didn’t know who had even paid their dues,” she recalled. “They just handed me a big box of stuff.”

She’s been paid to work 20 hours a week, but inevitably that spills over to more hours. She has worked out of her home office all these years, but her successor will be based at the Chamber’s visitor center at Marantette Park.

She has tirelessly represented Columbia Falls on various tourism, business and economic development boards. For the past few years, she chaired the Associated Chamber of Commerce of the Flathead Valley.

A native of Glendive, Pike came to the Flathead Valley as a fourth-grade teacher in 1957. She met her husband Bob, a Montana Highway Patrol officer who died in 2000, while teaching in Whitefish. Pike switched from full-time teaching to working as a permanent substitute for the Columbia Falls school district, a job she held for 25 years.

The flexible hours of her part-time Chamber job have allowed Pike to devote time to her two children and four grandchildren. She’s looking forward to having more time to travel, and enjoys watching her youngest grandson play college-level tennis.

Pike plans to continue living in Columbia Falls and doing what she does best — volunteering.

A retirement party for Pike will take place at Truby’s at Meadow Lake on Thursday, May 14, from 5 to 7 p.m.