New Fryeburg Fair President Roy Andrews, left; retiring President David Hastings II; and Finance Committee member (Sen.) David Hastings III.
President David Hastings II retires after 52 years

     After 52 years of dedication to Fryeburg Fair, David R. Hastings II has retired.
     The longtime Finance Committee member stepped down after four years as president and a lifetime of devotion to Fryeburg Fair. The Fryeburg attorney handed his gavel to newly elected president Roy Andrews following his unanimous election at the annual December trustees meeting of the West Oxford Agricultural Society, which sponsors the 156-year-old fair.
     Hastings was elected president in December, 2002, shortly after the death of Philip G. Andrews of Fryeburg. Hastings can trace his roots back to David R. Hastings, a Lovell attorney who served as vice president on the fair’s founding board in 1851.
     “I’ve had a great deal of fun serving the fair,” Hastings, 82, told fellow trustees. “We’ve had some wonderful times as we watched the fair grow to the event it is today.” He recalled the paid attendance hit 50,000 in 1976 and exceeded 200,000 a quarter century later.
     Hastings began as secretary in the 1954. He was elected to the 3-member Finance Committee in 1961, joining Phil Andrews and John Weston. There have been few changes in the governing committee’s makeup in the last half century. Weston died in 1973 and Dr. Eugene Hussey was elected to his spot. Hussey continued to serve until his death in 2006.
     Current member Ted Raymond was elected to the committee when Phil Andrews was elected president in 1991 and Hastings’ son, David Hastings III, was elected in 2002

when his father was elected first vice president.
     Hastings’ wisdom and experience has been significant over the past half-century as the fair grew from a “pretty good fair” as Phil Andrews used to call it to Maine’s largest and one of the best on the eastern seaboard.
     Fairgoers during that time will remember that Hastings has not only been one of the great architects of the fair but also the voice of Fryeburg Fair. During his tenure he has announced the Grand Parade on Saturday as well as each of the four pig scrambles. He was a founder of the 40-year-old Woodmen’s Field Day and instrumental in engineering the fair‘s expansion from 40 to 180 acres.
     He has also overseen the development of a number of livestock exhibits including goats, hogs, poultry, llamas and alpacas. The growth of departments and displays has expanded to include the Farm Museum, Crafts Center, Little Red School House, Horse-drawn Wagons and the Fiber Center. Competitions have been added including the Women’s Skillet Throw, Christmas Tree and Wreath contest and tractor and 4-Wheel drive pulls.
     Finally, Hastings has watched the fair grow from a handful of volunteers to more than 600 employees during fair week.
     Hastings successor is no stranger to fair operations. Roy Andrews’ 40-year involvement began with the parade, a job he still holds today. He was superintendent of Building and Grounds during the construction 		and renovation heyday of the seventies, eighties and nineties.      For the past decade he has been general superintendent in charge of overall operations for the Finance Committee.
     Andrews displayed his characteristic sense of humor at the annual meeting, noting that he started out helping his father with the parade and worked his way up to bag man – carrying the bags for the pig scrambles.
     The 68-year-old Fryeburg resident becomes only the sixth man to hold that post since 1928.
Roy’s father Phil, a Finance Committee member for more than four decades, was elected president in 1991 when Francis Buzzell's health forced him to step down.      Buzzell had been elected to the post in 1989 after the death of Earl Osgood, who had served as president for 28 years. Osgood succeeded Conway, N.H.'s J. Howard Woodward, for whom Woodward Pavilion is named. Woodward was elected a trustee in 1904, the first year New Hampshire residents were admitted to the society. He was named vice president in 1922 and president in 1928, a post he held until his death 38 years later.
     The fair's growth to eight days has been a gradual one. Trustees voted to expand the fair to four days in 1941 but World War II stalled the expansion until 1945. The fair swelled to five days in 1954, seven a few years later and eight in 1981 when the second Sunday was added. While the fair continues to grow in popularity, officials say they are satisfied with keeping the event at eight days.

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