The Polson Museum has named Irma Loomis its 2017 Pioneer of the Year.
The annual award recognizes local residents who have helped shape Grays Harbor for the better. Loomis will be honored at a public reception at 2 p.m. Sunday at the museum in Hoquiam.
Loomis was born Jan. 28, 1925, in Prosser, moving to Port Angeles in 1929 and graduating high school in Grandview in 1943.
After extensive volunteer work for the Red Cross during World War II in Eastern Washington, Loomis followed her parents to Aberdeen, where Elizabeth and John Throckmorton established Grays Harbor’s first Swedish massage business. Loomis attended Grays Harbor Junior College and found work as a bookkeeper at Whitney Oldsmobile.
Soon she met and married Elmer Loomis, who worked at West Coast Plywood. They raised eight children on a small farm where she still lives on Wishkah Road.
As a young mother in the immediate postwar years, Loomis immersed herself in that era’s homemakers movement. Upon joining the Home Economics Club that met at the Wishkah Grange (a precursor to the Washington State University’s Homemakers’ Club), Loomis quickly transitioned from student to teacher to leader. She soon accepted a position with the WSU Cooperative Extension to help establish the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program.
Volunteerism has been a lifelong constant for Loomis, whose focus on safety, nutrition, home finance, health and science has helped strengthen countless individuals in her community. Of special note is her work with the Family Community Leadership program, whose mission was to help young women become better leaders in community organizations, businesses and government.
At 92, Loomisstill volunteers with the Home and Community Educators organization. She also remains active with the Salvation Army Church and the WSU Extension.