Nancy Manning broke the gender barrier when she joined Kalispell Rotary as the first female member 25 years ago.

The organization honored her recently with a Club Service Award for her contributions through the years, including a tireless effort to raise money for Miracle Field at the Kidsports athletic complex.

Many active women followed in Manning’s footsteps.

Today more than 30 percent of the Kalispell Rotary membership is women, President Michael Hayes said, noting that diversity has made the club more productive on many levels.

It took a national effort to open Rotary’s door to women, though. A 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision rejected Rotary International’s contention that it had a constitutional right to ban women as members.

“It was a watershed court decision,” Hayes said. “It’s shocking it didn’t happen sooner.”

In 1989, Kalispell Rotarian Rick Davis, then the principal of Edgerton School, sponsored Manning as she joined the club.

As Manning received her service award, she recalled the day she was inducted.

“There were two uniformed officers and a German shepherd there,” she recalled, as the men gathered for their weekly meeting.

“I thought they were there for my protection, but I found out later they were there [to present] the program,” she added with a smile.

Manning said she continues to be passionate about the service organization, especially the group’s global work to eliminate poverty, provide clean water, promote literacy and eradicate polio.

“We all have talents we share,” she said.

Afterward, Manning further commented on what women have contributed to Kalispell Rotary.

“I guess women just love to be involved with things,” she said. “We seem to be able to take on tasks and get them done ... not that men don’t.”

Rotarian Roy Beekman, the current district governor for Rotary, pointed out Manning’s leadership when the club was raising money for Miracle Field, a facility that allows disabled athletes to participate in sports.

“We agreed to raise $100,000, and it became $275,000,” Beekman recalled, explaining Manning’s persuasive ways. “She tilts her head and smiles and says ‘Can you help me?’ How can you not agree to do whatever she asks?”

Manning, who grew up in her father’s local drugstore, The Alton Pearce Drug Co., and then became a pharmacist herself, is in charge of sustaining membership for the Rotary Foundation. She used her time at the lectern during the awards ceremony to promote the foundation that’s the fundraising arm of Rotary.

“I hope you all can give something to the Rotary Foundation,” she told her fellow Rotarians.

By the time Muffie Thomson joined Kalispell Rotary in 1995, there were only a half-dozen women members.

“Nancy Manning, of course, was the rock star as the first ever,” Thomson said. “Rita Fitzsimmons was the first female club president, so I had a role model to emulate when I stepped into that job in 2003.

“What drew me to the organization was the opportunity to collaborate with other professionals on a weekly basis,” Thomson said. “Since I work in Lakeside [as branch president of Flathead Bank of Lakeside], my network is limited due to the size of our community. The Kalispell Rotary allowed me to be part of a much greater whole.”

Beginning in the early 2000s the ratio of new members, men and women, found an equilibrium, Thomson said.

“The addition of so many wonderful female club leaders has nudged us into the future,” she added.

Fitzsimmons recalled the first few women who joined the club “seemed to light a spark.

“It was different. It was interesting. Conversations changed,” Fitzsimmons said. “Some men resisted and hoped the women would leave; others enjoyed the new dynamic. Nancy Manning was the perfect one to be ‘first’ with her professionalism, kindness, gentle humor and Kalispell heritage.”

Fitzsimmons recalled that it took some grit to be among the first women members.

“I think our presence definitely inspired change,” she commented. “The simple truth is that Kalispell Rotary is a better, stronger, more creative service club because of committed men and women working together.”

Susan Dykhuizen was among the women who joined in the early 2000s.

“Rotary came to me in 2002 when I was asked to attend a meeting,” Dykhuizen said. “I was a little skeptical at first. It seemed like a lot of older people, particularly men, and I wondered how I would fit into this organization. I told myself that I would try it for at least a year to see how things worked out.”

She was hooked after that first year.

“What I didn’t realize was that in that year Rotarians would steal my heart,” Dykhuizen said. “It was within this club that I found some of the most caring and loving people I have ever met.

“Rotary holds within its membership some of the most powerful ‘movers and shakers’ in our community and internationally, in our world. These are the people that can mobilize quickly, get things done and make a difference in people’s lives, whether it is a baseball field for handicapped children right here in Kalispell, a water system for a community in South America, wheelchairs for people in Peru or the eradication of polio worldwide.

Adding women to the club infused new ideas and perspectives into the membership, she said.

“I think the addition of women to our club has made what was great even greater,” Dykhuizen said.

In 1991 Fitzsimmons spoke at a state Rotary District Conference on the topic, “What’s It Feel Like Being a Woman Rotarian?” But these days, she said, “there is a healthy, boring ‘normalness’ in membership that has evolved in our club over the years.

“New members [today] are novel because they are new, not because they might be a woman,” Fitzsimmons added. “We’re simply valued members of a really good service club.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.