Tami Whisker was crowned “Sweetheart” of the Bingham High School Future Farmers of America (FFA) in her senior year. She offers this caveat when describing her reign: “It wasn’t your typical beauty contest. We had to stack hay, drive a tractor, milk a goat, make and decorate a cake and a few other things.” It all came naturally to Whisker, who describes herself as a “geek” who didn’t fit in growing up in South Florida.

“I just wasn’t cool,” she laments. “I was really into horses.” She found a better fit when she moved with her family to South Jordan, Utah, and joined the FFA. It was horse country and she felt right at home.

Whisker, who now lives in Wanship, will take the reins of a completely different animal next year. She’s currently president-elect of the Park City Board of Realtors and will assume the volunteer position of president in 2012.

She was a real rodeo girl throughout her years at Bingham High in Salt Lake and college at Southern Utah University in Cedar City. “I rode in grand entries and parades all over the state, including the “Days of ’47” and the Oakley Rodeo. I was usually the one carrying the flag for the national anthem,” she says.

After graduating from college with a degree in communications, she moved back home to South Jordan and took a job as a lobby maid at Stein Eriksen Lodge. “I just wanted to get my foot in the door and work my way up.”

Part of her lobby job was to polish Eriksen’s trophies. “He [Stein] would come by after skiing and talk to me sometimes. I told him I was living at home in Salt Lake but wanted to move to Park City. It turned out he and his wife were looking for someone to house sit while they traveled during the summers, so I did that for two years.”

Like most ambitious Parkites, Whisker worked a variety of jobs over the next several years, leaving Stein’s for a position as general manager of the Grub Steak Restaurant, then to clubhouse manager at Glenwild, then back to Stein’s.

Whisker got her real estate license in 2005, during the last boom. She wistfully recalls those first two years as a Realtor before the bottom dropped out. “For a while there, working in real estate was fairly uncomplicated. Now, it’s much more difficult with all of the issues in financing. But we’re seeing a light at the end of the tunnel as inventory shrinks and sales increase,” she says. She takes her career with Prudential Real Estate in Park City seriously and has averaged 50 hours of continuing education in real estate every year since she started. “I’m sort of an education junkie.”

Whisker loves to tell the story of how she met her husband, Mark, in 1990. “A mutual friend had been trying to set us up for months and neither of us was going for it. While I was out with friends at Z Place one night, we finally met. Everyone kept calling him Whisker and I asked him why. He said, ‘Because that’s my name.’ I made him show me his ID, then told him I thought it was fake. He insisted that it was his real name and, ironically, it’s my name now too.” The couple married in 1992.

“Mark is incredible,” she gushes. “He cooks, cleans, is super handy and totally takes care of me and Nicki.” Nicki is daughter Nicole, born in 1993.

“She’s been every parent’s dream child,” Whisker says of her daughter. “She slept through the night as a baby, always got good grades, and she’s pretty cooperative, except with keeping her room clean. But I’ll take the messy room.” Nicole, now 18, will attend Weber State College in Ogden in the fall.

Whisker still has a passion for animals. Though she no longer owns horses, her love for dogs and cats runs deep. “I’m not sure why, but I have always had a special connection with animals,” she says. That connection led her to hours of volunteer work with Friends of Animals. She has also exhibited her sense of civic duty through volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity, Peace House, the American Cancer Society and, most recently, the Egyptian Theatre when she was asked to perform in the Park City Follies. “I can’t believe all the neat people I met doing the Follies this year,” she says. “Now I’ve got a whole new circle of friends in Park City, people that I didn’t even know. It was the most fun I’ve had in years.”

Whisker loves living in Summit County, especially in the summer. “I deal with winter because I love the summers so much. There is so much outdoor recreation available! Also, the people here are incredible. They’re smart, conscientious, fun and down-to-earth. I feel like I really fit in here.”

Steve Phillips is a Park City-based writer and actor. Send your profile comments and suggestions to him at [email protected]

VITAL STATISTICS

Favorite things to do: golf, hike, go out to dinner and dancing

Favorite foods: “I am mostly vegetarian. I like spicy Italian, stuffed peppers and, occasionally, sushi.”

Favorite music: “Whatever my daughter loads on my iPod.” Also classic rock and disco.

Favorite authors: Dan Brown and Dean Koontz

Bucket list: “I’d love to see more of Europe, maybe golf in Scotland and spend some time in wine country in France and Italy.”

Animal companions: Bo, a 10-year-old yellow Lab, and Cooper, a three-year-old bloodhound/vizsla mix adopted from Furburbia.