#FlashbackFriday: 40 Years Ago, the Exchange Named its First Female Senior Vice President

For Women’s History Month, Flashback Friday once again remembers an Exchange female pioneer: Rosalie LaFleur, who in 1982 became the first woman at the Exchange to be promoted to the senior vice president/executive rank when she became chief of the Western Distribution Region.

Years of hard work got her there. She began her Exchange career more than 25 years earlier, in October 1955, as a snack-bar manager at Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington. By January 1956, she had been promoted to cafeteria manager, later switching over to retail and working her way up to retail manager.

In 1959, LaFleur, a military spouse, resigned to accompany her husband when he transferred to Okinawa. But she wasn’t away from the Exchange for long: the same year, she rejoined the organization as a procurement clerk at the Ryukyus Central Exchange on the island. From there, she moved up to assistant buyer and then buyer, leaving that position in April 1966 when she was transferred to Hong Kong as chief of the Procurement Office.

Three years later, she was reassigned to HQ as a buyer, then served in a variety of management and executive positions in merchandising until she became chief of the Exchange’s Fashion Distribution Center in 1979. She stayed in that position until she was named chief of the Western Distribution Region in ’82. In July 1984, the Western and Eastern Distribution Regions merged into the AAFES Distribution Center, where she remained chief until her retirement in 1986.

More than 200 people, including her family, Exchange associates, military assignees and close friends, attended LaFleur’s retirement party, a semiformal affair at the Atlanta Marriott Hotel. Maj. Gen. John E. Long, the Exchange commander at the time, presented LaFleur with a congratulatory letter from President Ronald Reagan. Several other dignitaries honored her during the dinner and at her official retirement ceremony the next day.

Thirty years after her retirement, LaFleur died on Nov. 8, 2016.

Today, 40 years after LaFleur’s breakthrough, the Exchange has two female executive vice presidents: Karen Cardin, EVP and chief merchandising officer, and Karen Stack, EVP Logistics. Female senior vice presidents include Marla Smith Randolph, SVP for Europe/Southwest Asia/Africa region; Karin Duncan, SVP for Pacific region; and Sandi Lute, SVP of Corporate Communication.

Source: Exchange Post archives