After being put on hold for two years, the Whitefish Pottery anniversary and customer appreciation party is set for May 9 at the Twin Bridges studio, to celebrate the business’s 30 years in operation. 

The party, a well-known and highly anticipated event over the years, was skipped in 2023 because the building downtown was sold, and in 2024 because owner Tom Gilfillan suffered a heart aneurysm in February. 

“I was walking my dogs in the morning. I took one step back into the house and felt a freight train going through my chest,” he said. “I decided to drive myself into town knowing that I could get to emergency services quicker.” 

He met the ambulance at Grouse Mountain Lodge and was whisked off to Logan Health Medical Center where he immediately underwent open heart surgery. After months of physical therapy, he was cleared to travel. 

“Three months later, I was doing better. I won't say I was doing well,” he said. “My doctors told me I was well enough to fly to go see Bruce Springsteen in Ireland, so I treated myself.” 

Gilfillan is grateful for everyone at Logan Health and for the EMTs who told him he made the right choice in deciding to drive to town, as it was one of the factors that helped save his life. 

"I was very fortunate to still have my wits about me ... in a situation that should have taken my life,” he said. “I had about a 3% chance of making it and I am here today to have, once again, the Whitefish Pottery anniversary party.”  

Gilfillan moved to Whitefish from Wisconsin in 1994 and set up the Whitefish Pottery studio on Twin Bridges. Three years later, the business moved downtown, settling on the corner of East Third Street and Central Avenue. 

“We moved out of downtown because at the end of December 2022, somebody from out of state was interested in owning the whole building,” he said. “They made us some pretty good offers to move out, and at 65 years old, I decided it was time to retire.” 

But he hasn’t retired entirely. After 24 years downtown, he moved his business back to Twin Bridges where he’s been working on his own ceramic work. 

“I’m basically semi-retired, still producing, not as much,” he said. “I got into more sculptural work on the personal side of it and have been firing wood kilns in Missoula and in Columbia Falls.”  

He said when the business was thriving downtown, the studio would fire the glaze kiln about three times a week. Now that he is semi-retired, the same kiln is fired about three times a year. 

Still, Gilfillan maintains a small pottery shop at Twin Bridges which offers some Whitefish Pottery favorites along with work from a handful of other potters. 

“People look on the website and find the phone number and directions, and they can shop,” he said. “It’s a much smaller showroom than in downtown, but I get passersby, bicyclists, wanderers.”  

The party on May 9 is from 6-9 p.m. at the Twin Bridges studio and will feature live music, food and drinks. Carpooling is suggested. 

"With the support of the community, it's been a good 30 years,” he said. “I just wanted to let people know that I'm still here and operating -- at a little smaller, quieter level than I was before.  

“I'm still going and I'm still going strong,” he added. “No heart aneurysm’s going to take me out.”