Jan. 24—GRAND FORKS — Monica Musich, who led the Valley Dairy convenience store chain for 16 years, received the Grand Forks business community’s highest honor Thursday.
Musich received the Henry Havig Award at the Grand Forks/East Grand Forks Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting and dinner, held at the Alerus Center.
“It’s important for organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, which has a long tradition of supporting and benefiting from women leaders, to be a leader in recognizing, mentoring and encouraging women leadership,” former UND administrator Bob Boyd said upon presenting the award. “Tonight, the Chamber does exactly that.”
Before that, in front of a packed ballroom — just over 500, the largest in the Chamber’s history, per President and CEO Barry Wilfahrt — Chamber leaders recounted a year of successes for the Grand Forks business community.
Outgoing Chamber Board of Directors Chairman Tony Hodny highlighted the city’s successful acquisition of a $1 million air services grant and the soon-to-open Career Impact Academy, which won a $10 million matching grant in 2021 after local businesses pledged millions of dollars to the project.
“As an owner in the trades, I’m very excited for there to be an avenue for youth to be exposed to and enter into the trades,” said Hodny, the owner of H&S Electrical Services.
Incoming Chairman Mike McLean, who presented Hodny with a plaque celebrating his stewardship of the local business network, told the audience the Chamber was internally “in great shape.”
He emphasized the importance of the Chamber’s partnerships, highlighting in particular the public-private Team Grand Forks lobbying effort amid an ongoing legislative session.
The lobby group includes representatives from the city, county, school district, Chamber, UND and the Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corp.
Among its priorities this session are seeking or continuing state funding for the GrandSky aviation park, the planned children’s museum, and for the second half of a planned STEM complex on UND’s campus.
“We have created a culture where cooperation for success on Grand Forks’ legislative agenda is expected,” McLean said.
As opposed to recent Chamber events, which have featured panels on emerging technology like unmanned aircraft and artificial intelligence, Thursday night’s event was largely a victory lap for the Chamber.
At one point, the emcees paused the event to play a several-minutes-long clip of last year’s keynote speaker, celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary, celebrating small business and touting North Dakota over “loser state” California.
“It just makes you proud to be part of the business community here,” Hodny said.
Thursday’s keynote speaker was Hunter Pinke, a former UND football captain who was paralyzed from the chest down in a skiing accident in 2019.
Pinke, the
Herald’s Person of the Year in 2020
, went on to lead the University of Arizona to the National Wheelchair Basketball Association championship twice and now works regularly as a motivational speaker.
He recounted his journey from partial paralysis in a Colorado skiing accident in the middle of his junior year to chasing a basketball championship, thanking Chamber members at one point for chipping in to address his medical bills from spinal surgery and recovery.
“The best part about your dream isn’t what you get to do, it’s the people you get to do it with,” Pinke said. “I’m very proud to be from this place, and I’ll never be able to repay what you did for me.”
Outgoing Chamber board members also received recognition at Thursday evening’s event, and German Law paralegal Heidi Krogstad was honored with the Ambassador of the Year Award.
The Havig Award, as its tradition, was given out at the end of the annual Chamber banquet. Musich, however, was unavailable to attend due to a prior engagement; Becky Mindeman, a Gate City Bank executive, accepted the award on her friend’s behalf.
Reached by phone, Musich said she was “humbled” to receive the award.
“It’s hard to express this kind of gratitude,” Musich said. “Every time I think about it I’m just so overwhelmed.”
Musich joined VALDAK Corporation, Valley Dairy’s parent company, in 1988; her father had purchased the business in 1964.
Twelve years later, and nine years after her father died, Musich took over as CEO.
In his remarks, Boyd credited Musich with introducing cafes, gifts and car washes to Valley Dairy’s nine convenience stores, bringing a “softer touch” to the business and creating an egalitarian work environment that trusted employees with more responsibility.
She sold the business to Petro Serve USA in 2016, and has since served on the boards of several foundations, including those for Altru Health, and Grand Forks Public Schools.
She currently serves on the board of the Convention and Visitors’ Bureau and the Valley Senior Living Foundation.
Musich and her husband, Mark, and their two children all graduated from UND.
In 2023, the university honored Musich with the Sioux Award, UND’s highest alumni honor.
The Henry Havig Award has been given since 1977. The all-time winners, and the year for which they were awarded, are:
Charles Goodman, 1977; Hugo Magnuson, 1978; Edward Lander, 1979; Thomas Clifford, 1980; Lawrence Bue, 1981; Harry Rice, 1982; Jean Kiesau, 1983; Clarence Sande, 1984; Edward Christenson, 1985; Don Miller, 1986; Ray Bostrom, 1987; Richard Fiala, 1988; Richard Wold, 1989;
James Dalglish, 1990; Don Lindgren, 1991; Earl Strinden, 1992; Thomas McElroy Jr., 1993; John Marshall, 1994; Curt Magnuson, 1995; Patrick Dooley, 1996; James Gjerset, 1997; Ken Towers, 1998; Don Larsen, 1999;
Walter Swingen, 2000; Hal Gershman, 2001; Robert Kerr, 2002; Marlan Helgeson, 2003; Bob Peabody, 2004; Greg Gerloff, 2005; Randy Newman, 2006; Dr. Robert Boyd, 2007; Dave McFarlane, 2008; Gordon Caldis and Gerry Joyce, 2009;
Don Fisk, 2010; Wes Rydell, 2011; Judi Paukert, 2012; Henry Tweten, 2013; Jim Hansen, 2014; Duane Hafner, 2015; Marijo Shide, 2016; Lonnie Laffen, 2017; James R. Bradshaw, 2018; Kristi Magnuson Nelson, 2019;
2020 (rescinded); Greg Opp, 2021; Curt Kreun, 2022; and Dave Molman, 2023.