PAC 'legends' celebrated in retirement

COEUR d’ALENE — Economic development professionals turned out in droves Friday afternoon to celebrate the retirement of two Panhandle Area Council legends.

Executive director Jim Deffenbaugh, who logged 27 years with the agency, and finance director Kay Kitchel, who put in 39 years at PAC, retired earlier this year.

Both have agreed to stay on as consultants to the PAC’s board of directors, and to help their replacements make the transition.  

They were recently replaced by newly-appointed executive director Greg Cook, and new chief financial officer Cynthia Reyburn.

“There are some really big shoes to fill around here,” Cook said. “Jim has been just a powerhouse in this region, but he was a quiet powerhouse. He always seemed to work behind the scenes, and he always got the job done.

“He is kind of like the Wizard of Oz.”

That was the sentiment of several community leaders and PAC board members who attended the retirement party.

State Rep. Frank Henderson recounted a story of how Deffenbaugh helped build the Business Development Center near the Coeur d’Alene Airport, where PAC is now housed.

When he was a county commissioner, Henderson said the Economic Development Administration had a grant available to build a business development center.

The problem was they needed to come up with a $150,000 match to do it.

“We didn’t have money like that back then,” Henderson said. “So I went to Jim, and he came up with it.”

Since then, the Business Development Center, which provides low rent space to startup companies, has never had an empty bay.

“It was so successful they had Jim go all over the West to speak about business development centers,” Henderson said. “He spoke from Alaska to Texas, and they would still have him out there doing it if we would have let him go.”

Deffenbaugh was a master problem solver, Henderson said. He recounted a time when the EDA asked Deffenbaugh to take over a grant project in the Silver Valley that had gone a little sideways.

Once Deffenbaugh got it back on track and completed, the EDA came back, said the project was $287,000 in the hole — and they wanted PAC to pay for it.

“I don’t know what he did, but Jim solved the problem,” Henderson said.

Reyburn said Kitchel was also quite the legend in the office.

“You just can’t take Kay’s place,” she said. “Around here everyone says Kay will know this, Kay will know this.

“Now that will be at my door.”

She said Kitchel’s knowledge of the day-to-day operations at PAC will be missed.

“Kay was a big piece of the puzzle here, and that needs to be recognized.”

Former Kootenai County Commissioner Dick Compton, who served as PAC’s board chairman for six years, said both would be missed dearly.

He said Deffenbaugh was very good at his job despite having to deal with the board of directors.

“He may have got us out on a limb from time to time, but he knew just how far to take it,” Compton said.

Compton recounted how PAC helped build out the county courthouse campus.

“It was during a time when a bond levy would never have passed,” he said. “Jim was able to build it for us on a lease purchase basis.

“We were able to pay it off early, and it turned out wonderful.”

Deffenbaugh thanked everyone for attending the event, and recounted an economic development story of his own.

He said Henderson got him involved in a national leadership council, where he traveled to third-world countries to help spur business activity.

He traveled to Sudan once to help spark some business activity in one small community. He noticed the villagers were proficient in baking but had issues with serving sloppy food on small plates.

That’s when Deffenbaugh got an idea. He created what he called Java Jim’s Bakery and taught the villagers how to solve problems with business solutions.

“I started making bread bowls,” he said. “By the time we left everyone was making them.”

On a return trip to Africa and couple of years later, he bumped into someone who had just left the part of Sudan he was in and learned that bread bowls had become very popular.

“Two years later everyone has them,” he said. “Thanks to Frank, I have had a lot of opportunities like that.”

Kitchel also had a few words of thanks for those who attended.

She said she was used to working in the background, so she wasn’t prepared to give a speech, but wanted to thank everyone who helped make her career successful.

“If it wasn’t for the staff and Jim, I don’t think I would have made it 38 years,” she said.