FVCC's founders get their day

Crowds of people connected to Flathead Valley Community College throughout its 50 years met at the college Friday night to listen to stories about its earliest moments and leaders.

As space in the Arts and Technology Building’s large meeting room ran out at the Founders’ Day event, audience members stood in doorways.

“Without this community creating this amazing college, think about what Northwest Montana and the Flathead Valley would be like if the college hadn’t been here for the last 50 years,” FVCC President Jane Karas said.

She then looked toward a man sitting in the crowd, Bill McClaren, who had been one of FVCC’s founders.

“Bill along with four other remarkable individuals dreamed of a college in the Flathead for many years,” she said.

She said that dream came together on April 1, 1967, when Flathead County residents approved the creation of Flathead Valley Community College.

Karas presented McClaren with the Montana Mentor Award for his role in bringing higher education to the valley.

Representatives from Republican Sen. Steve Daines and Democrat Sen. Jon Tester read aloud letters the men submitted into the Congressional Record honoring the college’s 50 years.

Larry Blake Jr. gave the crowd a bullet-point list of facts from his father’s life: He was FVCC’s first president; he was a civil engineer; he moved to Seattle and worked for Boeing; he had four kids; when the family needed more money, he started driving a cab. Blake said it was around that time his father began teaching at Highline Community College where he rose through the ranks. Later he became dean at Seattle Community College.

It was from there that Larry Blake was hired to be the college’s first president eight days after the voters established FVCC.

He remained at the college until 1974, leading the effort to find space, funding and students. He then continued his career in higher education, including years spent at institutions in Canada, North Carolina and Oregon.

“What you don’t know about my dad is even more important and more impressive than his public life,” he said. “He is a child of the valley.”

Blake described his grandparents meeting in Glacier National Park — his grandpa worked as a gear-jammer, and his grandma worked in one of the shops.

His father went to high school in the valley, where he met his lifelong love.

Blake said his father was the first child in his family to go to college. He said before his father left home, he got three things from his mother, “a hug, a kiss and a sweater.”

Blake said that his father, as someone who had worked hard to put himself through college, understood how important it was to support other people’s efforts in securing higher education.

“When he had the opportunity to return to the Flathead Valley, he jumped at the opportunity,” Blake said. “He wanted to come home.”

Before the event ended, Karas asked audience members who had been in the college’s first days to stand up. She then asked former and current FVCC students or faculty to stand.

The list continued until virtually everyone in the room was on their feet.

Karas said as the college continues to grow and adapt each year, it will keep the community’s needs as its priority.

“I only hope we can do it in the way that they [the founders] set forth,” she said.