Oechsle inducted into Fairs Hall of Fame

VW independent/submitted information

For his longtime service to his community, to the Ohio Fair Managers Association Board of Directors, to the Van Wert County Fair, to Ohio agriculture and the Ohio fair industry, Paul Oechsle was recently inducted into the OFMA Ohio Fair Hall of Fame Class of 2015 this past Sunday at the 90th annual OFMA Convention Awards Breakfast.

The induction was a complete surprise to Oechsle.

“I love the fair,” he noted following the announcement. “I’ll love the fair ‘til I’m pushin’ grass.”

Joined by his family, Oechsle was given a plaque and his own carrot cake, his signature dessert at Fair Board Association conventions, to celebrate.

Oechsle has been associated with the Van Wert County Fair since he was a youngster, first as a 4-H member for 12 years, showing hogs — including the grand champion barrow one year — and then as a 4-H advisor for 17 years.

Oechsle was first voted in as a director of the Van Wert County Fair in 1965, which began a career of community service with the fair that stretched more than 45 years. Oechsle’s Fair Board service started as a fair director, then to board vice president 1973 and 1974, president in 1975 and 1976 and he has headed up almost all committees at one time or another.

In 1989, Oechsle became fair secretary and retired from the Van Wert County Fair in 2011 — a span of more than 22 years of managing the fair’s day-to-day operations.

During Oechsle’s Fair Board tenure, building projects included the current Junior Fair Board office, Farm Focus Show Arena, the new horse barn, and a new restroom-shower building.

Major concerts produced included Johnny Cash, Barbara Mandrell, Brad Paisley, The Judd’s, Lee Greenwood, ZZ Top, Leonard Skynard, REO Speedwagon, Motley Crue, Foreigner, Styx, and Kansas.

Oechsle has also been active in the Ohio Fair Managers Association at the district and state levels, first as a district director, then OFMA second vice president, first vice president, convention program chairman, president (2006 and 2007), and has continued as past president managing the banquets for the past five OFMA conventions.

Oechsle was named “Fair Secretary of the Year” in Ohio by the Greater Ohio Showman Association in 1996; the 4-H honored him as “Friend of Extension” in 2004; and he has also been named by the Ohio Department of Agriculture as “Ohio Fair Supporter of the Year”.

Oechsle was awarded the Special Achievement award by the Greater Ohio Showman in 2008 for his service to the fair industry and the support of Ohio showmen. He has served as past president of the Van Wert Area Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, was a Harrison Township trustee for 16 years, was a longtime member of St. Paul United Church of Christ and currently is a member of St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, and is a graduate of Crestview High School.

Oechsle still farms his own land, as well as contract harvests for several neighbors in Convoy, and he and his wife, Joyce, have six children between them and four grandchildren.