It’s exciting to see new faces hired to lead century-old organizations, especially after having written histories of those institutions.
Lewis County commissioners hired Tamara Hayes as fair manager, and she’s expected to be on board in time for the Southwest Washington Fair next week.
Hayes, selected from among 28 applicants, works as the state capitol weekend supervisor for the state Department of Enterprise Services. From 2011 to 2014, she worked at the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society in California. She holds a bachelor’s degree in humanities and master’s degrees in both business administration and museum studies.
She’ll lead the historic fair, which began in 1909 as the only community fair mandated by the state Legislature to take place, as it moves into its 108th year. Past managers were George Walker (1909-27); Bob Somerville (1927-34); Chapin Foster (1934-38); Waldo Carlson (1938-41); Tom Wood (1941); Carl Hampe (1942-46); Art Ehret (1946-56); Tony Wildhaber (1956-62); Paul Creighton (1962-63); Wildhaber again (1963-78); Lee Coumbs (1978-85); Earl Spencer (1985-99); and Gale Sobolesky (1999-2015). After firing Sobolesky in January, commissioners hired Coumbs as interim fair manager.
Each leader left a legacy on the fair and a chapter in the event’s long history. It’s up to Hayes to write the next chapter.
The same is true with Bob Mohrbacher, the new Centralia College president, who started work July 1 at the 90-year-old community college.
Mohrbacher, selected from among 40 applicants, most recently served as vice president of instruction and student services at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake. A Seattle native, he holds a bachelor’s in English, a master’s in creative writing and a doctorate in education and community college leadership. He taught English at Tacoma Community College and Pierce College before working at Big Bend.
Mohrbacher said he’d like to retire from Centralia College, which several longtime presidents have done in the past.
The first president, hired in 1966, was Nels Hanson, who oversaw two community colleges — one in Centralia and the other in Olympia — for 15 years. In 1980, district trustees hired Dale Miller to serve to oversee Community College District 12’s campuses, and Jerry Young as head of Centralia College. In 1986, they hired Hank Kirk, who served as Centralia College president after the Olympia and Centralia campuses split and retired in 2002 after 16 years. Then James Walton assumed the presidency. He retired in 2014, but after trustees fired Robert Frost in December 2015, 18 months into his three-year contract, they asked Walton to return temporarily.
A history of the college’s first nine decades is expected to be published soon.
For the first time ever, a woman has been hired to oversee Chehalis city government. Tracie “Jill” Anderson is expected to take over for City Manager Merlin MacReynold Sept. 25. She was selected from among 25 applicants.
After voters approved switching from a city commission to council-manager form of government in November 1975, the City Council hired Jay Haggard as its first chief executive. He left in 1983 to accept a similar position in Kelso. Next came Lloyd Willis. In 1988, the council hired Dave Campbell, who served 17 years, until 2005, when he moved south to work as Longview’s assistant city manager. In mid-May 2006, the city hired MacReynold.
Now, Anderson, who has worked as Riverbank, California’s city manager since 2012, will do the same when she assumes the position next month. She previously served as manager assistants in Seaside and Norwalk, both in California. She holds a bachelor’s in public administration and a master’s in organizational leadership.
It’ll be interesting to see how these new community leaders guide their respective organizations in the coming years and what kind of legacies they leave.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
