May 14, 2003
Women's club celebrates 75 years of service
Business & Professional Women's Club holds open house at Heritage Center
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Members of the Traverse City Business & Professional Women's Club celebrated their 75th anniversary Monday evening at a reception and open house held at the Grand Traverse Heritage Center.
The 35 attendees also included past members, the Michigan Business & Professional Women's Club president and representatives from area human services agencies. A display of meticulously organized scrapbooks and photo albums highlighted the club's history.
"In February of 1928, the Cadillac chapter urged 100 women in Traverse City to meet and form a club," said Dorothy Crimmins, president of the club who has been member since 1987. "It is amazing in this rural community that there were 33 women to start the club."
While the educational and advocacy group has just nine members at the moment, their combined years of membership are in the triple digits. Many members have logged multiple decades and are still counting.
Geraldine Pagel clocks in with 69 years of membership, which is also a record for longest membership in the state organization. The group recognized Pagel for commitment to the organization, which included years of publishing the club's monthly newsletter. Pagel retired from that job a year ago, finally hanging up her typewriter.
Pagel, a retired English teacher from Traverse City Senior High, joined the club in 1935 back when most of the members were single, widowed or divorced women. These women became breadwinners by necessity.
"I joined partly for companionship and partly to meet professional people," said Pagel, who taught from 1928-1968 and recently celebrated her 100th birthday.
The Business & Professional Women's Club also gave nine grants to area organizations at the meeting. These cash grants will assist with programs sponsored the Father Fred Foundation, Crooked Tree Girl Scout Council, the Grand Traverse Heritage Center, the Goodwill Inn, the House of Hope, Michael's Place, the Salvation Army, the Women's History Project of Northwest Michigan and the Women's Resource Center. The organization also recognized Pat Coddington, owner of Coddington Furriers and Cleaners, for her repeated assistance with an annual fund-raiser.
"We wanted to give back to organizations within the community," Crimmins said.
Anne Marie Revett became a member of the Traverse City Business & Professional Women's Club in 1967 and has stayed active for 36 years. She remembers a thriving chapter that hosted a thousand women from around the state for a conference in 1968 and hopes more women join again.
Revett said that three decades or more ago, when the club had 60, 70 or 80 members, there was no where else women could network in the business or professional world.
"If you were an attorney, teacher or banker, there weren't any other places to go," she said. "Women couldn't join the bar association. Especially when we were younger, we had women in all the professions."
"There have been a lot of changes for women in business," she noted. "The group has evolved now into more of a service organization."
The next meeting of the Traverse City Business & Professional Women's Club will be on Monday, June 23, at 6 p.m. at South City Limits restaurant. For more information, call Dorothy Crimmins at 929-1724.