Spirit of Whitefish

In the late 1950s, as a young Charlie Abell was plucking duck feathers in his dad’s garage Susan Monroe asked him to go with her to a high school dance.

They’d met before; his dad’s cousin was good friends with the girl’s parents. Upon hearing about the invitation, Charlie’s mom was adamant that he go.

“I was accosted and my mother said, ‘you got to go,’” Charlie said, laughing. “She was the girl next door, I married the girl next door.”

Susan laughed at the memory as the couple sat together recently in their home overlooking Whitefish Lake.

“It was a little rocky, but it’s been good. Fifty-three years later we’re still married,” she said.

The Whitefish Rotary Club has named Charlie and Susan Abell the recipients of its 2016 Spirit of Whitefish award. In all their years in Whitefish, the couple has been heavily involved in the community — working in local businesses, serving on school and city boards, teaching in rifle clubs and organizing the Whitefish Winter Carnival, among countless other things.

“These two remarkable people have been actively involved in the betterment of our community in countless ways for over 50 years, and we are delighted to recognize them in this meaningful and entirely appropriate way,” said Cliford Hayden, president of the Rotary Club.

Lending themselves to the community was never a job or a burden, but something the Abells felt compelled to do because they loved where they lived.

“It was our home,” Susan said of staying involved. “Not just the building we lived in but all of us, we were all together and everybody worked together. It was a lot of fun and everybody did it.”

Charlie is probably best known for his time at the Whitefish Credit Union, where he worked from 1965 until retiring in 2009. With Charlie at the helm as president and CEO, the company’s assets grew from $780,000 to more than $1.2 billion, a statistic he’s particularly proud of. He’s also served nine years on the Whitefish School Board, been appointed to various government boards and committees, and was even named one of five Citizens of the Century for the town’s 100th birthday in 2005. He was also inducted to the Whitefish High School Bulldog Hall of Fame in 2007.

Born and raised in Whitefish, Charlie remembers growing up in the one-bedroom log house his parents built on Whitefish Lake, close to where The Lodge at Whitefish Lake currently sits. His dad taught him to fly fish on their dock, and the yard was large enough for him to keep a horse too.

Charlie graduated from Whitefish High in 1958, where he was first team all conference in football, and joined the U.S. Army Reserve immediately after. He studied finance and marketing at the University of Montana and took a job in Helena after graduation before moving back home to Whitefish two years later.

Susan moved to Whitefish in the seventh grade after living around Great Falls for most of her life, and her parents also built a home on the lake. Susan was a coach for the Whitefish Junior Rifle Club for 21 years, served on the city and county’s park boards, helped coordinate years of the Whitefish Carnival and was named the First Lady of Whitefish in 2000.

Susan served as Whitefish Carnival Queen in 1962 and Charlie as Carnival King in 1978.

Susan can’t choose a favorite organization or project she been involved with.

“I loved the shooting because it was working with kids, I liked the Carnival because it was part of the whole community, and I liked the park board because I was really interested in keeping open space in the city and in the county,” she said. “It was all good.”

Their family stands out as their proudest achievement. The couple has two sons, Tarn and Koel.

“They’re our best accomplishments, raising two sons that are successful and great young men,” Susan said.

Both Charlie and Susan’s faces light up when they talk about their children, who grew up and matriculated through the Whitefish School system just as their parents before them. Tarn, the oldest, spent nearly 30 years in the U.S. Air Force following high school before retiring as a Colonel and working as a pilot for United Airlines. Koel worked various engineering jobs before earning his master’s in chemistry and moving to Portland for nearly a decade. He now works as an engineer at ViZn Energy Systems Inc, which develops batteries for solar and wind energy systems.

The Abells spent several summers involved in outboard boat racing in Montana and nearby states. Like everything, the boat races were a family affair, Charlie said.

“Susan and the boys would get everything ready while I worked, and as soon as work was done we’d drive all night to the race site, race two days then drive all night coming back in time to shower and go to work,” he said.

Charlie spent four years as the volunteer treasurer for the American Power Boat Association and was ranked second nationally for several of his 20 years spent racing, and Susan served as a race official for the annual Whitefish Lake Regatta, which was the longest-running powerboat race in the United States running some six decades.

“She disqualified me a number of times,” Charlie said, “not that she shouldn’t have, of course.”

The eighth annual Spirit of Whitefish Award banquet and auction will be held at the Lodge at Whitefish Lake on Saturday, Nov. 5 with cocktails at 6 p.m. and festivities in the evening, including the raffle of gold bullion, and both live and silent auctions.

All are welcome to attend and participate in the event. Banquet and gold bullion raffle tickets are available through event chairman Tim Dalstrom at 249-2169, or from any Rotarian.