Leading by example

Mike Ferda seems to enjoy serving in the role of mentor.

He made a career of guiding the young officers serving under him as assistant chief for the Whitefish Police Department and of guiding the athletes in his charge while serving as a football coach for Whitefish High School. He left his coaching job after 20 years in 2005, and at the end of 2016 he retired from the police department after 28 years on the force.

He tries to pass on his own philosophy when acting as a senior officer or a coach.

“It’s to never be satisfied in ourselves,” he said. “Tomorrow I’m going to wake up wanting to try to better myself or do something better than I do today.”

Sometimes working with a young athlete led to later mentoring of a young man. At least four former players who worked for Ferda on the gridiron went onto to become law enforcement officers.

Whitefish’s assistant chief Bridger Kelch, who replaced Ferda, and patrol officer Tim Schuch both played for Ferda. Columbia Falls Police Chief Clint Peters and Sgt. Sam Cox with the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office also played for him.

“They are all successful law enforcement officers,” Ferda said. “That makes me happy, that makes me proud, and that makes me confident in the type of police officers who are out there because I’ve known them since they were young men.”

Ferda grew up in Great Falls and joined the U.S. Navy. After leaving the Navy he moved to Whitefish and began the process of joining the police department. Today, he has been married to his wife, Laura, for 31 years and together they have two children and two grandchildren.

His desire for a law enforcement career came from his father, who was a teacher, a football coach and a deputy sheriff.

“Being a police officer, being involved in football and the schools was always an important part for me,” he said. “My dad had a big role in how I turned out.”

Ferda applied the lessons he learned from the Navy to his role as football coach and assistant police chief.

“It was about teamwork — it wasn’t about the individual,” he said. “It was like that with my football teams and that was the way I tried to manage at the police department. It wasn’t about anyone of us individuals, it’s about the police department and the services that we are going to provide.”

During his career, Ferda said he spent about half of his time in uniform on the streets of Whitefish. He also served as interim Police Chief when Bill Dial took a leave of absence for year to work in Afghanistan. He has watched the town change and the number of police officers double.

“The town has grown and evolved,” he said. “The town has gone from a rough and tumble timber industry and railroad town to where once the development started families started moving in and phased some of that out. Through that transition the expectations of the police department have increased.”

Ferda is proud of the role the police department has been able to play in Whitefish’s move to being a “much more family-oriented” town rather than a party town.

One of the ways Ferda said the police department has helped with that transition is by making sure its officers are involved in the community. He’s a strong supporter of the Special Olympics Montana and has made the jump into an icy Whitefish Lake every February since 1999 for the annual Penguin Plunge fundraiser for Special Olympics. He points to the police department’s involvement in that event also, along with other officers who have coached sports, and the school resource officer program as examples of “community policing.”

“It’s important to us to be part of the community,” he said. “This is my community and I want to proud of the police department.”