I think the operative words are "in church." To me that means from the pulpit, not down in the basement or the annex, teaching Sunday School. If that was a problem, then maybe they could have found a gentler way to deal with it.
You must know that the word church means its members; it is not a building. The church is formed of believers, not of buildings; sadly, few are taught that and they think they are "going to church".
THe passage is in first Timothy, chapter two, and the words "in church" are not in the New International Version of the bible.
The teaching is clearly about spiritual, not worldly matters, but I disagree that it deals only with preaching (especially since preaching and teaching were separate issues to Paul).
Regardless, the belief that women should not be spiritual teachers of adult men is within the mainstream of belief of fundamentalist and evangelical churches. It is not some whacko belief of some fringe element.
I also can't figure out why if this is their interpretation of Scripture, they just now figured it out after the woman's been there 50 years. Maybe this guy just moved in got a new revelation or something.