Berni Dami: Looking back with a smile

Editor’s note: Berni Dami, one of the most respected, beloved professionals in the history of The Hagadone Corporation, passed away Thursday night in Coeur d’Alene.

Duane B. Hagadone, CEO and chairman of the board of The Hagadone Corp., had this to say Friday:

“It was one of the great breaks of my life when Berni came to work for us all those years ago. She was as loyal, bright and hard-working as any associate I’ve ever worked with. I think the world of her.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Pete, Dan and the rest of the Dami family.”

In honor of Berni and on behalf of thousands of current and former Hagadone Corp. employees, we’re reprinting an In Person interview that was originally published Dec. 18, 2016.

By MAUREEN DOLAN

Staff Writer

There wasn’t a single day Berni Dami thought about quitting her job as Duane Hagadone’s personal assistant and secretary.

And there are a lot of work days over 48 years.

“If you’re happy with your job and happy with your surroundings and happy with your employer, what else do you want?” Dami said Tuesday during an interview at her Coeur d’Alene home.

She announced her retirement earlier this month, on the anniversary of the day in 1968 when she began working for Hagadone.

Dami’s journey to Coeur d’Alene began in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. For the first years of her life, she lived there with her family in a house with no heat, no water and no electricity.

“We got our water from a stream that ran through the mountains,” Dami said.

The family moved to California when Dami was 7. Her father went first, hitchhiking across the country to the Golden State and then sending for Dami, her mother and sister.

They settled in Oakland where Dami later developed her great love for the city’s football team. She has a Raiders room in the Coeur d’Alene home she shares with husband Pete.

When she enrolled in school at age 7 in Oakland, she was smart enough to be bumped up to sixth grade.

“As a result, I graduated from high school when I was 14,” Dami said.

Her parents then divorced, and at 15, she got a work permit and went to work for State Farm Insurance in Berkeley, Calif.

She started as a policy typist and within four years, Dami was secretary to the vice president. She stayed with State Farm for 15 years.

During that time, she met and married Pete Dami. The couple moved to Coeur d’Alene in 1963 and Pete went to work as head pharmacist at Kootenai Hospital. He was the first pharmacist there when the hospital, now named Kootenai Health, first opened.

The couple’s son, Daniel, was six months old when they moved to the Lake City.

Dami met Duane Hagadone in 1967. He told her he’d heard she used to be a secretary and asked her if she would like to work for him.

She said, not for another year. She wanted to stay home with her young son, Daniel, until he went to school.

She went to work for Hagadone a year later and never left.

Through those years, she and Pete made many friends and became involved in the community.

“We’re doers,” she said.

Dami is a member of Coeur d’Alene Rotary and she served for four years on the club’s board of directors. She and Pete belong to St. Thomas Church in Coeur d’Alene where Dami also served for several years on the board.

She said she’s now looking forward to spending more time with Pete and her son.

“But I can say that I can look back on my 48 years with Duane with a smile and happiness,” Dami said. “I enjoyed every minute of it. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

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Did you ever imagine, when you started working for Duane Hagadone, that you would still be there nearly a half-century later?

No, but I liked to work. I worked since I was 13 or 14, and of course, it was wonderful working for Duane.

You must have a great relationship with him, to work with him for so many years. What do you think made that relationship click?

I have great admiration for Duane. He not only loves his Hagadone Corporation, but he was born and raised in Coeur d’Alene, and he loves this area. Whether a lot of people know it or not, he spends an awful lot of time trying to enhance the progress of Coeur d’Alene, and he is a brilliant man. He and I just have a good relationship. We understand each other, and he was very good to me all of the years I worked for him. And we became very fast friends, and remained that way through all of the 48 years. Not only did I become friends with him, but I became friends with his family and he with mine.

I have always had the utmost respect for him, and he treated me with respect, yet he was the boss. And I admired what he did. I have the utmost respect for his intelligence. He will continue, I think, enhancing Coeur d’Alene, The Coeur d’Alene Resort, and his properties for as long as he lives.

What was the business like when you first began working for Mr. Hagadone?

When I went to work for the Hagadone Corporation, Duane Hagadone’s office was upstairs on Third and Sherman. A year or two after I moved there, he bought the Coeur d’Alene Resort from Bob Templin, and started building the Hagadone building. In ‘71, we moved into the Hagadone building (the wood building beside The Coeur d’Alene Resort). I’ve worked at that building ever since.

There were probably many exciting times while working for Mr. Hagadone, but was there one particularly exciting project?

I think people were surprised at The Coeur d’Alene Resort. It turned out to be a beautiful place, and it’s still a beautiful place. It’s part of life in Coeur d’Alene. And he has the restaurants outside The Resort, and the Coeur d’Alene Inn. He keeps enhancing everything every year.

He does so many things for the city. The fireworks (annually, the day after Thanksgiving), that’s just one of those things.

What was your favorite part of being Mr. Hagadone’s assistant and secretary?

I enjoyed meeting many different people. For instance, Duane entertained Ronald Reagan, and I participated in that. In fact, one of the people in Ronald Reagan’s campaign asked me if I’d like to go work for the president in Washington, D.C. But I said, no, I wouldn’t leave.

What are you going to do now?

I retired merely because I think it was time. I’m going to spend more time with my husband, who’s retired, and we’ll do a little bit of traveling. And I have a son, who’s with Rockwood Clinic, and I’d like to spend more time with him. I’m just going to find out what it’s like to retire.

Do you think it’s going to feel odd for you?

I’m sure it will, because I’ve worked since I’m 13 or 14, but I’m looking forward to it.