Tom Sliter, an active community leader and owner of Sliters Ace Lumber & Building Supply for 30 years, died Saturday. He was 69.

Sliter grew up in the family business that began in the mid-1920s when his father, Everit Sliter II, and Neils Sliter bought the Horn & Smith general merchandise store in Somers, about half a mile east of the current Sliters store.

After graduating from Flathead High School in 1965, he went on to major in geography and math at Valparaiso University in Indiana. Sliter went to work for IBM as a systems engineer, helping smaller manufacturers install computers. He progressed to regional technical support representative, working in Denver, Omaha and Chicago.

When his father asked him to come back to the Flathead and help with the family business, he obliged.

Sliter returned in 1979 and began to modernize the company’s paperwork by computerizing the price book, according to a 1999 Daily Inter Lake article about the business. It took a while to bring everything together under a new computer system (an IBM) that was installed in 1989.

He took over the management of the business in 1986 following the deaths of his father and his oldest brother, Joe. He continued to grow Sliters, adding an additional store in Lakeside and a custom design center in Bigfork.

Sliter’s motto, posted on his home page on the Sliters website, reflects how he embraced both his business and community service: “Don’t just THINK it — Do it!”

In recent years he was secretary of the Somers Company Town Project that has raised money to restore a steam locomotive and build an accompanying pavilion reflecting the town’s railroad company heritage.

“He did a marvelous job [as secretary],” said Fran Ruby, an active Somers volunteer. “I can’t say enough about what a good person he was. He was very involved in every aspect of the Somers Company Town Project.”

Ruby said Sliter was enormously generous. “He donated for everything that happened in Somers,” she noted.

He also helped with the Volunteer Park project and other community endeavors in Lakeside.

Sliter served for many years on the Trinity Lutheran School Board of Education, including a stint as board chairman. He also served as secretary of the church and was a church elder at the time of his passing.

Laura Sliter, one of his four children, said the lessons he passed on to his children reflected his work ethic and love of community. One of his favorite sayings was “always leave a place better than you found it,” she recalled.

“Whenever we would leave he would said, ‘Hey, I love you guys. Take care of each other.

“My dad had this deep sense of history and interest in carrying on a legacy, whether it was the lumber company or community tradition in Somers or their family’s farm in Lower Valley,” she said.

Sliter’s self-described job title — owner and janitor — showed another dimension of his willingness to always go the distance.

“He always felt you could be the CEO and you may still have to contribute at a menial level to make it work,” Laura continued. “He was not above getting his hands dirty. He was always doing whatever needed to be done.”

In 2014 The Western Building Material Association awarded Sliter the Distinguished Dealer Award, given to an association member who demonstrates outstanding service in the building materials industry.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, July 12, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Kalispell. A full obituary will be forthcoming.