Celebration of Life for Beloved Fair Board Member

ZANESVILLE, OH -A celebration of life is planned for a beloved and long serving member of the Muskingum County Fair Board that passed away.

Doug Guinsler passed away on October 3rd while working the Loudonville Street Fair.

He served on the Fair Board beginning in 1975 and was their Secretary for over 35 years. Guinsler’s love of the fair and everything that goes with it began when he was a child.

Gail Deitrick, the President of the Fair Board, said Guinsler would often recount stories of when the water lines were placed around the grounds because he was one of the workers installing them.

“He was just, such a wealth of knowledge, not just for the workings of the fair grounds, but of course he’d been there with us for so long too that he was a wonderful source of knowledge,” Deitrick said. “He served as our secretary for several years as well, he was in charge of concessions and worked so well with all the concessions, they all knew him, loved him.”

Guinsler is also the only person to have served as President of both the Ohio Fair Managers Association and the Greater Ohio Showmen’s Association.

Deitrick said that the Guinsler family will be hosting a celebration of life on Nov. 3rd in the Veteran’s Complex at the Fairgrounds.

“We will miss him greatly and we just appreciate all that he has done for the fair,” Deitrick said. “You know, we’ve had some rough times at the fair and he worked really well with the rest of the board and we all worked together to get ourselves out of some financial troubles we’ve had in the past, we are just so very pleased to be back and on strong footing, and we have Doug to thank for that, you know, he was the force behind a lot of that.”

More details on Guinsler’s Celebration of Life will be announced in the coming days.