Greniers give major gift to academic endowment

The Columbia Falls High School Academic Endowment fund recently benefited from a $25,000 donation from Charlie and Teresa Grenier.

Charlie is the former executive vice president of Plum Creek Timber Co. He retired in 2000. The Greniers’ two sons, Mike and Eddie, graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 1995 and 2000.

“We’ve always been supportive of public schools,” Charlie said last week.

Of particular importance to Eddie was the Running Start program, which allows high school students to take college-credit courses. Charlie said it gave Eddie the opportunity to get his engineering degree from the University of California-Los Angeles sooner than most graduates.

Teresa was active in local schools when the boys were here and helped organize a community group to get a key mill levy passed at the time.

“Education is the heart of the community,” she said.

Today Eddie works for Amazon in Seattle. Mike, who graduated from Stanford University, worked in the alternative energy field. More recently, he sold a solar power company in Portland, Ore. and now works for the parent corporation.

“We want to continue to support the endowment fund,” Grenier said. “We’re especially interested in high school students getting a great education.”

Charlie and Teresa live in Whitefish. Charlie served on the Kalispell Regional Medical Center board of directors until he stepped down several years ago. He is now active in KRMC’s capital campaign to build a new emergency room facility.

The couple’s donation more than doubles the amount in the endowment fund, which was started in 2012. The fund had about $17,000 prior to the Greniers’ donation.