Reinhardt had a passion for fairs

Jerry Hammer knows Minnesota lost a fair giant last week following the death of Richard Reinhardt of Owatonna. He was 95.
As general manager of the Minnesota State Fair, Hammer said there aren’t many people who match Reinhardt’s passion for fairs. Reinhardt worked for the State Fair for 60 plus years and volunteered for the Steele County Free Fair for nearly as long.
“Dick understood how important fairs are,” said Hammer. “He knew they are the fabric of the community.”
Hammer said he isn’t really certain how long Reinhardt worked at the State Fair because it doesn’t keep official track of employee longevity. But Hammer does know Reinhardt began working at the State Fair sometime during the 1950s and earned his 50-year award in 2009.
During his tenure at the State Fair, Reinhardt was the superintendent of the ticket audit operation. In the early days, Reinhardt manually counted the tickets as they came in from the various ticket booths.
“The ticket stubs were dumped out and hand-counted,” Hammer said. “It was a painful process and difficult, but Dick was the right guy to handle it all.”
Reinhardt’s last fair for doing the ticket audits was 2013. The following year the fair switched to an automated process with computer scanners.
Hammer said Reinhardt never missed a fair and made it out to the last fair in 2019.
“He was just a prince of a guy,” Hammer said. “I rarely saw him do anything other than smile. A wonderful human being.”
Reinhardt served as a board member for the Steele County Fair for nearly 60 years. In 2013, he was recognized with an award for 55 years of service. In his later years, he was the director of hospitality and superintendent of the fair’s bank.
Corky Ebeling of Owatonna, a past president of the fair, served with Reinhardt on the fair board for 30 years.
“He took me under his wings and introduced me to everyone I needed to know,” Ebeling said.
Ebeling credits Reinhardt for organizing great hospitality for vendors, midway workers and others involved with the fair. “He believed in treating them right,” Ebeling said. “He was our ambassador.”
Current fair president Dan Deml applauded Reinhardt’s financial skills as his greatest contribution to the fair. Reinhardt retired as an auditor for Federated Insurance and used those skills to help the fair.
“I think he was responsible for the fair being financially responsible with our resources,” said Deml. “His command of the financial situation helped us to be active and aggressive in expanding the fair.”
Deml said Reinhardt was a numbers guy. “He did it the old school way - paper, pencil and adding machine,” Deml said, adding he had no computer and used a ledger book.
It’s believed Reinhardt started working at the Steele Fair when he was 11 years old, taking tickets for the midway.
“The fair was his passion,” Deml said. “He put his heart and soul into it. We were the beneficiaries of his dedication.”
Added Ebeling: “He didn’t have a bad bone in him.”
Funeral services will be Monday at Trinity Lutheran Church in Owatonna. A full obituary can be found on page A7.