Fred Jessop — Elkhart County Fair board president for 150th fair

Fred Jessop is this year’s fair board president for the upcoming Elkhart County Fair. Jessop’s whole family has been involved in 4-H. His parents, Bill and Karen, were both 10-year 4-H’ers. Jessop himself was a 10-year 4-H’er and his children have also been involved in 4-H.

Jessop joined the fair board 10 years ago volunteering to help with the tractor pull. Jessop has participated in the tractor pull since the 1970s and joined the fair board’s subcommittee for the pull. His father said the worst part of the tractor pull was winning the first time, “then you’re hooked,” he said.

Jessop said the tractor pull is a fun hobby, but since he farms, he typically doesn’t have much time to participate as he did before.

“Things are pretty busy until mid-July, early August,” Bill said.

Jessop told Cork Wagner he would be interested in taking over the tractor pull committee when Wagner decided to retire.

After being on the board for a few years, Jessop was appointed to the long-range planning committee and then to the executive committee.

The Elkhart County Fair Board has approximately 130 people with an executive committee of 12-13.

Jessop said he was really looking forward to the ribboncutting opening of the fair.

“I’m looking forward to getting it started,” he said.

He explained being fair board president now is easier since the fair has a general manager in the office. Prior to having a general manager, the fair board president needed to contribute a lot of time to organizing the fair.

As a fair board member, he said he misses being able to actually see the fair or going to the livestock shows since fair board members are usually busy doing a variety of tasks during the fair.