Claira Monier

Claira Monier, the head of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority from 1988 to 2007, will be honored by the state’s leading businesses on Oct. 20.

The Business and Industry Association plans to present her with its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at its 108th annual dinner and awards celebration that evening.

Monier, 80, grew up in Bedford as the daughter of an Italian immigrant father and a Polish immigrant mother. She left high school in 1956 at age 16 to earn $1 an hour working in the mills to help support her family, the BIA said in its announcement of the award. She ended up finishing high school and became a teacher after graduating from Plymouth Teachers College and later went on to earn her master’s in urban geography at Clark University and teach urban geography and urban planning at St. Anselm College.

When she was named the executive director of NH Housing in 1988, she pushed the agency to grow the types of housing it financed from single-family homes. Under her leadership, the agency eventually backed 400 multifamily developments.

“Now that I’m 80 years old I ask; of all the decisions I made, did I make the right decisions?” she said in a statement provided by the BIA. “I can look back and feel New Hampshire is better from the decisions I made. I can drive all around the state and see projects we were part of.”