Bev Clark to Retire following the Centennial Fair

Ionia Free Fair manager Beverly Clark has announced that the 2015 Centennial Fair will be her last as the Fair’s manager.   Clark came to the Ionia Free Fair after a long and active career in the amusement industry when her husband Doug became the Ionia Free Fair’s manager in 2004.  “It literally began as a labor of love,” Clark said, “Doug joined the Fair as its manager in 2004 and the rest, as they say, is history.”  Together she and Doug brought many improvements to the fair along with assisting the Ionia Free Fair Association with a framework for preparing the fair for the future.

With Doug’s untimely death in 2007, Bev willingly stepped into his shoes and never looked back.  She has managed the fair though a number of crises, both financial and natural, including the early cancellation of the B93 Birthday bash after heavy rains in 2009 and the rain out of the last three days of the 2011 fair.  Clark has seen a lot in her years in the business but she contends the Ionia Free Fair will remain firmly fixed in her heart.  Fair concessionaires speak very highly of the Clarks.  “Bev and her late husband Doug are truly one of a kind.  Not many like them anymore,” said Ron Netterfield a regular fair concessionaire.  She has worked relentlessly to keep the Fair changing with the times and is particularly proud of her “EPark” which has evolved into one of the most popular venues of the ten day fair.

In keeping with her pledge to do all she can to better the Fair and to honor Doug’s legacy she has volunteered all of her services to the Fair at no charge.

Clark will manage the fair through the end of the fiscal year.  “We are actively seeking candidates to succeed Bev but she will definitely be a tough act to follow,” said Clare Colwell, president of the Ionia Free Fair Association.  “Our hope would be to name her successor as soon as possible so she can work with them through the remainder of the fair and to the end of our fiscal year.”

When asked what her #1 wish was for the Fair she immediately responded with “another hundred years!”

Clark will be recognized during the fair for her efforts.  After the fiscal year ends in September, she will remain involved in the Fair as a member of the Board of Directors of the Association, but, she says, “more time at the lake” is on the agenda.