Election results prompt historical society director to step down
<p>Executive Director of the Northwest Montana Historical Society Gil Jordan displays the remains of a tea kettle, one of the items recovered from the sunken remains of the Kee-O-Mee. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
Northwest Montana Historical Society Executive Director Gil Jordan will retire from his position on March 31 in part due to the election of Donald Trump as president, he announced to the group’s board of directors last week.
Kimberly Pinter, Jordan’s wife and the historical society’s office manager, will also step down at that time. The historical society operates the Museum at Central School in Kalispell.
“I was planning on serving another year, maybe beyond that,” Jordan said. “After the election, I can’t do business as usual when clearly the world has changed dramatically.
“My wife and I made the decision that we didn’t want to just keep doing this, going through the motions, despite the fact that it’s good work and valuable and makes our community better,” he added. “We just decided we had other priorities that we needed to take care of.”
The 71-year-old has worked at the historical society for 12 years and has spent his career working primarily for non-profit organizations. He feels called to spend his future, beginning next spring, “dealing with the problems created with this administration.”
“If you look around the country right now, folks that have racist and bigoted views feel validated,” Jordan said. “We’re going back to Jim Crow. We’re supposed to be beyond that.”
Jordan said he and his wife made their decision while driving to work Thursday morning and shared their decision with the museum board that night. He added it was too early to make specific plans for the future but spoke with particular passion about environmental issues.
“I’m a longtime supporter of Greenpeace and there are other local environmental organizations in the area,” Jordan said. “I may be able to serve on some boards and support those causes. I’m a big supporter of thinking globally and working locally. Right now, when we’re finally making progress, we’ve got an anti-science guy that says global warming is a hoax. We’re all going to be in trouble if we don’t get these things under control. I plan on spending more of my time working toward those causes. That’s currently more important than going through business as usual.”
Jordan ran for Flathead County commissioner as a Democrat in 2012. He was defeated by Republican Cal Scott in that election. Before his time at the museum, Jordan was a social worker at the Western Montana Mental Health Center, working with mentally ill adults at Lamplighter House.
Jordan anticipated the search for his replacement could begin as early as this week, although the job was not posted as of Tuesday. Jordan said he is staying on through the end of March in part to ensure a smooth transition to his successor.
More information on the historical society is available at www.yourmuseum.org.