Ogle County Fair names venue in honor of late fair president

OREGON – Harlan Holm would have liked the sea of “Massey red” that dotted the landscape at the Ogle County Fair on Thursday.

Hundreds of fair-goers came dressed in red as a tribute to the longtime fair board president who died last August at the age of 65 as he worked at his farm northeast of Oregon.

Holm, a Massey Ferguson fan, usually wore red during fair week to remind all the other farmers at the fair that Massey was his tractor of choice.

Holm’s family, including his wife, daughter, mother, and brother, all wore red T-shirts on Thursday when they were called to the front of the grandstand stage before the start of the tractor and truck pull.

They watched as a large “Welcome Back” banner at the top of the stage was lowered to reveal the venue’s new name “Harlan Holm Memorial Track”.

“Now the Ogle County Fair Board has dedicated this grandstand area to the memory of Harlan Holm and his efforts of fair play and hard work. Harlan didn’t hand build everything at the fairgrounds, but he organized most of it, and it is only fitting that we should dedicate this particular facility to him,” said Dave Palmer of 3D Sound, who worked with Holm during the fair.

“Thank you so much fair board and all of you fans out there,” said Patricia, Harlan’s widow. “He did have a big service heart, but he loved every minute of it. He lived and breathed it, and this means a lot to us.”

Harlan would arrive before the fair opened each day and stay well after it closed, often until 2 or 3 a.m. And then he’d come back and do it all over again.

“That’s how important it was to him,” said Brad Holm, Harlan’s son, in a September 2020 interview. “Several events were really important to him, like the tractor pulls and the rodeo. Seeing all the people kept him going.”

While the fair was Holm’s focus all year long, he also was active in Oregon Together and the Rockin’ River Fest, and was named Oregon Chamber of Commerce’s Volunteer of the Year in 2017.

Debbie Dickson, who was the Chamber’s executive director in 2017, said Holm had great foresight, the ability to listen to discussion around a table and then figure out the best way to serve the community going forward. She said volunteering was his passion.

“I don’t think anybody could estimate the number of hours,” Dickson said. “I don’t think it’s even possible. He was first-in, last-out and doing things on his own. It’s thousands of hours.”