A lot has changed since Carol Pike took the reins of the Columbia Falls Area Chamber of Commerce 27 years ago as its part-time director.

Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. was one of the city’s biggest employers in 1988 and “a good partner” in the business arena, Pike recalled about her early days as the Chamber director.

Even though the aluminum plant is now closed for good, Columbia Falls remains the Flathead Valley’s industrial hub, she said. Manufacturing businesses such as SmartLam and Nomad Global Communications Solutions are the relative new kids on the block as economic drivers for the Columbia Falls area. And Plum Creek’s manufacturing facilities are going strong.

Pike has seen the U.S. 2 corridor through Columbia Falls flourish. Bike paths and ballfields have been built in the community, along with subdivisions full of affordable housing.

“We are the community where people can afford to buy houses,” she notes.

Last year when Xanterra Parks and Resorts decided to convert the former Pamida store into offices for its 30 full-time employees — the company employs more than 600 seasonal workers to operate Glacier Park’s major lodges and red bus fleet — Pike no doubt was doing the biggest happy dance of anyone in the community.

Tourism is strong and growing, she noted, taking the opportunity to tout Columbia Falls as the gateway to Glacier National Park. The Chamber’s visitor center is the third largest distributor of Travel Montana publications, Pike pointed out.

In every facet of Columbia Falls’ economic development, Pike has been a constant presence for the Chamber.

Pike’s days as Chamber director are coming to a close, though. She’s retiring in May, passing the baton to the next cheerleader and business advocate for the Columbia Falls community.

“I feel very confident the Chamber will have a great future,” said Pike, noting Coram businesswoman Stacey Schnebel is taking the lead as current board president and Mark L. Johnson as vice president/treasurer.

Her retirement is no big secret; she gave her board a one-year notice.

The Chamber board has long been a collaborative group and very much a working board, she stressed.

Pike remembers the disorganization that launched her Chamber career. There had been upheaval in the organization 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.”

Pike and her husband, Bob (who died in 2000 of a brain tumor), had been active community leaders for years, involved in youth sports and many other local groups, so taking on the Chamber job was a natural progression.

“When I came home from interviewing for the job, my husband said he couldn’t believe they were finally going to pay me for all the hours and mileage to meetings and fancy lunches,” Pike said with her iconic broad smile.

She’s paid to work 20 hours a week, but inevitably that spills over to more hours. It’s always been time well spent, she said, no matter how many extra hours she has donated over the years.

Pike has worked out of her home office all these years, though her successor will be based at the Chamber’s visitor center at Marantette Park.

When Pike began her Chamber career, the city of Columbia Falls did not have a paid city manager, only a part-time mayor. That made it difficult for the city to be represented on various county boards.

One of her first board assignments was for Eagle Transit, and Pike was proud when she successfully pushed to get bus service extended to Columbia Falls.

“As we saw things come up, whether for the elderly or affordable housing, I’d go to those meetings,” she said.

The Chamber board was reorganized to include either the city manager or a council member, to build the relationship between the city and Chamber. Pike said Columbia Falls greatly benefited when the city converted to the city manager form of government because it allowed the city manager to represent Columbia Falls on a number of boards dealing with pivotal issues such as economic development.

Pike has tirelessly represented Columbia Falls on various tourism, business and economic development boards, too, and for the past couple of years has chaired the Associated Chamber of Commerce of the Flathead Valley.

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.”

Most projects in Columbia Falls are true collaborative efforts, she said. The bike and pedestrian path along Talbot Road was one of those efforts, with funding coming from public and private sources, as well as help from the business community.

Senior living facilities such as Teakettle Vista, the creation of a Boys and Girls Club and bond issues that supported a new junior high school and city swimming pool are projects that came to fruition through community support, she pointed out.

A native of Glendive, Pike came to the Flathead Valley as a fourth-grade teacher in 1957. She met Bob while teaching in Whitefish. He was a Montana Highway Patrol officer, and after his first assignment in Stanford, they moved back to Columbia Falls in 1962 and never left.

Because of Bob’s erratic schedule, Pike switched from full-time teaching to working as a permanent substitute for the Columbia Falls school district and “subbed” for 25 years.

The flexible hours of her part-time Chamber director 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 will be doing what she does best: volunteering.

A retirement party is planned from 5 to 7 p.m. May 14 at Truby’s restaurant at Meadow Lake Golf Course. The public is invited.

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