Rita Tanner played a mean game of badminton.
She regularly nailed the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle.
In pen, no less.
At her professional peak as a Realtor, she was selling $1 million a year (in 1990s dollars) in homes and commercial structures across Morgantown.
When her kids were growing up, she was the cool mom in the room — but not too cool, because somebody has to keep order.
The businesswoman and community booster who died last week at the age of 91 did something else.
Whenever she and her fellow board members of the former Centra Bank would gather for a photograph, she always made sure to wear a dress with the boldest, most vibrant colors out there.
There was reason for that, John Fahey said, and it wasn’t about being the center of attention — though, with her diminutive stature, she was always going to be right in the center of the front row, anyway.
Call her picture-day wardrobe selection a sly, sartorial nod to a woman’s place in the proceedings, her longtime friend remembered.
It wasn’t, “Look at me,” Fahey said.
It was, “Look at my gender, and look where I am. You can be there, too.”
Fahey is a senior vice president of United Bank, but before that, he was in that same role at Centra.
A ‘thought-leader’ on the board
He was also one of Centra’s founding members, in fact, and in that capacity he also helped assemble the aforementioned board, which included such marquee names as Milan “Mike” Puskar, the pharmaceuticals magnate and city benefactor.
The goal, Fahey said, was to get a board with any member who could step in and run the bank, in the time it took for the stock ticker to crawl across the screen, if need be.
Tanner hit that job description, Fahey said, and the board of directors photograph confirmed it.
There Rita would be, Fahey said, surrounded by men in dark suits and power ties who towered over her.
When it came to business acumen and community bona fides, though, she was at eye level and beyond, Fahey said.
“She wanted to show that there was a female presence on the board of this local bank and that she had a contribution,” he said.
“I always called her a ‘thought-leader’ on the board,” he continued.
“When she talked during meetings, everyone listened.”
Take me to my new home, country roads
Tanner, who grew up in Chicago, listened to her heart during that winter break outing to Miami Beach, when, as a student taking a respite from her classes at Northwestern University, she met her husband-to-be, Stephen Tanner, of Morgantown.
She traded the flat expanses of the Midwest for the compacted mountains of Appalachia.
The newlyweds set about making a life here. Stephen went to work as a certified public accountant and Rita went back to school, earning a degree from WVU while raising their five children.
Life for Rita Tanner wasn’t just at the kitchen table or PTA meeting. It was an at-large endeavor, also.
Besides Centra, she served on numerous boards and community outreach organizations across the region, including the League of Women voters, where she worked for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972.
When it came time for the inevitable fundraising campaign, she was equally sly.
Instead of the hard-sell, Fahey said, Tanner was more cerebral.
She would tell the people she was courting for a donation to “Go home and think about it” — or, in other words, to really consider what the organization is really doing for your neighbors.
Those neighbors, especially, who aren’t as fortunate.
“And it worked.”
Of believing and giving back
She and her husband, meanwhile, were active in the Tree of Life synagogue and set up endowments benefiting Morgantown’s art and medical communities, which is how she got to know Bernie Schultz, the former WVU creative arts dean.
Schultz appreciated her patronage, but it was her personality and sense of place he really celebrated.
“Rita was a citizen of Morgantown and the world,” he said.
“She kept up with current events and she had opinions and observations on everything. She was a blessing.”
Her blessings, the dean said, were reflected in the remarks of her children, grandchildren and everyone else who spoke at her funeral service, which was this past Sunday at the Morgantown Marriott at Waterfront Place.
“They were saying what she said all these years: That you give back to your community, every chance you get.”
Giving back, her banker friend said, also means having, and investing in, faith.
Rita Tanner, he said, was a successful businesswoman who also worked hard for the betterment of her community.
At mid-life, she staked her career with a start-up bank, when, perhaps, others wouldn’t.
“That was her reputation,” Fahey said. “That was her name, but she believed in her community. She really did.”
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