Gennifer Sauter seems comfortable, almost at home, while sitting in the office at the Conrad Mansion Museum in Kalispell on a rainy fall morning. As the smell of fresh coffee hung in the air, it was easy to imagine a simpler time, before computer screens and portable space heaters and other such electronic distractions.

“I love the old books,” Sauter said. “I would love them more if I could go sit out there and read them.”

The Conrad Mansion Museum is a treasure trove of Kalispell and Northwest Montana history. Sauter has been the museum’s executive director since 2012.

“It’s a neat feeling to know I’m helping promote the history of the valley,” she said. “You should always have an idea where you came from. It’s important to understand how things evolved. It’s important to understand how things developed.”

For Sauter, the road to the mansion began to develop early, when her family moved to the Flathead Valley when she was 2 years old. Her parents are Bob and Candy Stephens; he owned his own business, selling office equipment and supplies, and she worked as a real estate agent. Sauter said it was actually her father who had a passion for history.

“I’m living out my dad’s dream,” she said. “He’s a huge history buff ... He actually tried to start a museum here when I was young, but life happened and it never came to fruition. So now he gets to come in and experience this and brag about his daughter, the museum director.”

Sauter was born in Missoula but spent her childhood and school years in Kalispell. She graduated from Flathead High School in 1990 and two weeks later found herself at basic training for the U.S. Air Force.

“It was just something I always knew I was going to do,” Sauter said about her decision to join the military. “I also wanted to go to college, and there was just no way my family could pay for that.”

She requested to be stationed on the West Coast, but instead was assigned to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina.

Sauter said that despite her initial apprehension, “I kind of think everything happens for a reason because that’s where I met my husband.”

From there, she spent a year stationed at Osan Air Base in South Korea, then returned to North Carolina where she married her husband, Scott. The couple’s oldest daughter, Lea, now 19, was born on the couple’s next assignment in Japan.

Sauter and her family were stationed in South Carolina next. The couple’s youngest daughter, Nicole, now 16, was born while they were stationed there.

“She was actually born in North Carolina, even though we were living in South Carolina at the time,” Sauter said. “It was so funny because my first baby was born late, so I just assumed the second one would be late, too. And it was New Year’s Eve and I wanted to spend it with my friends in North Carolina.

“The doctor had given me the OK to travel, and I had all of my medical paperwork with me just in case. Which was good because I went into labor. She was born December 31.”

Now a family of four, the Sauters were stationed in Alaska for almost six years. Their final assignment was at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. Both Sauter and her husband retired from the service in 2010, and immediately “moved back home” to Kalispell.

Sauter worked as a comptroller while in the Air Force, and held the rank of master sergeant. She earned an associate degree in financial management from the Community College of the Air Force while serving, and went on to get a bachelor’s degree in business management from Columbia Southern University online upon returning to Montana.

After taking time to finish her degree, Sauter began looking for work.

“Originally I was looking at doing something in hospitality,” she said. “My husband saw an ad for [the museum] position in the newspaper, and they were looking for someone with a financial background. So my experience sort of lent itself to this.”

Sauter was hired as executive director of the Conrad Mansion Museum in February 2012.

“It’s a very positive work environment,” Sauter said. “All of the staff and volunteers here are doing it because they love the mansion.”

In addition to her work at the museum, Sauter is also a member of the Kalispell Elks Lodge No. 725. She said she tries to make time for volunteer work through the club whenever possible.

“But this keeps me pretty busy,” she said about the museum. “It’s not just desk work here; there are a lot of events and on-the-ground time too.”

Sauter considers many of the events to be “perks,” even though the logistics can be demanding and often take a lot of work. She mentioned the special tours, like the just-completed Ghost Tours and the upcoming Holiday Tours as examples. She said she particularly enjoys the annual Death by Chocolate fundraising event.

“Getting to spend time with that cast ... It’s just a blast,” she said.

But even with all the books and artifacts, the events and people, Sauter said her favorite time in the mansion is during the holiday season. The two-story Christmas tree in the Great Hall makes the old estate seem even more magical, and Sauter said she often comes to work extra early, brews herself a hot cup of coffee, and sits alone in the silence of the hall just for the sake of taking it all in.

“It’s important because it’s where we come from,” she said. “Because they — the Conrads and other early settlers — put down roots here, the rest of us now get to enjoy it.”

Entertainment editor Stefanie Thompson can be reached at 758-4439 or ThisWeek@dailyinterlake.com.