E. Darwin Fuchs, who built Miami-Dade’s Youth Fair into an all-ages attraction, dies at 85
When Ernest Darwin Fuchs, the longtime president and CEO of the Miami-Dade County Youth Fair & Exposition, first strolled onto the grounds of the then-named Dade County Youth Fair off North Kendall Drive, he wrapped himself in the warmth of a small neighborhood carnival.
Charming, you might say if you were there in 1967 alongside Fuchs.
But Fuchs, who died on Jan. 23 at 85 from complications following a stroke, saw potential for the Youth Fair to be so much more encompassing.
Back in ‘67, one would note the Youth Fair’s highlights were simple pleasures like the merry-go-round and the Ferris wheel.
About 20,000 people partook of about 20 food stands and maybe 20 rides in the late 1960s on the original grounds.
“No blood-and-guts type stuff, no beer sales, no freak shows, no demolition derbies, just clean fun,” Fuchs told the Miami Herald in 1983, when he was the fair’s manager.
The Fair’s growth
By 2019, pre-COVID, the renamed and expanded Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition on the east corner of Southwest 107th Avenue and Coral Way Drive, adjacent to Florida International University’s main campus, was drawing 550,000 guests during its 21-day runs.
According to The Fair, there are now more than 100 rides — including The Screamer — and dozens of food booths, livestock and agricultural competitions, concerts and student exhibits on display.
“The Fair’s growth has been phenomenal,” Fuchs told the Herald in 2015 when he was president emeritus, with a pavilion named after him at the fairgrounds. “It has really blossomed out.”
Run in partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, The Fair showcases the artistic, academic and athletic talents of more than 63,000 public, charter, private and home school students through competitions and exhibitions.
More than rides
“He was just a wonderful human being. What he’s done for the community is just enormous,” Merrett Stierheim, Miami-Dade County’s manager from 1976 to 1986 and a decades-long friend of Fuchs, told the Miami Herald.
“You can’t measure the benefits of a youth fair only by the rides and amusements. That’s kind of a sidebar to one of the main functions, which is to involve our youth. That’s why they call it the ‘youth fair’ and they have anywhere from 40,000 to 60,000 exhibits. That’s really an amazing thing when you stop and think about how much effort the child puts into one of those exhibits,” Stierheim said.
During Fuchs’ three-decades tenure (1969 to 2004) at The Fair, he worked alongside Stierheim, who also served as Miami-Dade County Public Schools superintendent from 2001 to 2004.
Stierheim cited another example of Fuchs’ character in an obituary prepared by Fuchs’ family.
During the Mariel Boatlift in 1980, more than 100,000 refugees from Cuba arrived on Florida’s east coast, with a great many in Miami. Fuchs promptly opened the fair gates, Stierheim said in the family obit.
“I called Darwin when refugees were landing at our shores, and I asked, ‘What can we do?’ Darwin quickly responded, ‘Have them come here to the fairgrounds, and I’ll open up the big exhibit hall,’ which he promptly did. Over the hectic weeks that followed, we processed close to 40,000 refugees, uniting many with their Miami families,” Stierheim said.
Fuchs also teamed with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the county to obtain funds to build a pavilion on the Fairgrounds to serve as a pet-friendly Category-4 hurricane shelter. He also worked with the Archdiocese of Miami to turn the fairgrounds into the site of Pope John Paul II’s papal mass in 1987.
A visionary
“Darwin was a visionary, and he was a consensus builder. He created The Youth Fair into a center of the community in good times and in times of need,” Youth Fair President Eddie Cora said in a statement.
By the mid-1990s the word “youth” was scrubbed from the official name, but the emphasis on showcasing students’ exhibits didn’t waver. After all, one of the fair’s biggest gates was a 1984 Menudo concert that drew 10,000 shrieking young fans. The boy band’s newest and arguably most popular member that year? Ricky Martin, who was all of 12.
“Today, the fair still retains all its youth programs,” Fuchs told the Herald in 1997. “But for the past several years it has continued to grow in presenting entertainment, exhibits and attractions with broad-based adult appeal.”
Building the Youth Fair
By 1972, Fuchs opened the revamped fair on 86 acres at the east end of the former Tamiami Airport and built the baseball fields and soccer fields that are used by county park recreational programs.
Born on a farm
The lanky 6-foot-6 Fuchs was born in Rome, Indiana, on Nov. 3, 1936. He had a sense of humor, his son, Troy Fuchs, said.
“I’ve heard people refer to him as a larger than life figure with a great sense of humor. Often people would ask him how tall he was and he would reply ‘5-feet, 17-and-a-half,’” Troy said.
The senior Fuchs grew up on, and worked on, the family farm in Indiana. Not surprisingly, livestock exhibits became a feature of his Youth Fair. “How he loved those farm memories,” son Lance Fuchs said.
At 5, Fuchs’ family spent the winter months in Fort Lauderdale and would eventually settle in South Florida.
Schooling and career
In 1955, Fuchs graduated from Fort Lauderdale Senior High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida and played on the Gators’ varsity basketball team.
In January 1960, Fuchs worked for an advertising agency in Miami and within a year formed his own agency, his family said.
In 1964, Fuchs was an account executive for AM radio station WINZ in Miami and soon joined the Dade County Youth Fair’s board of directors and was named vice president.
A two-week vacation from WINZ in 1967 to manage the six-day fair prompted Fuchs to become the fair’s full-time manager in 1969. From there, he built it to its present status where, in addition to the 21-day fair, year-round public and private events are held.
Under Fuchs’ leadership, Miami-Dade students have been the recipients of more than $10 million in scholarships, awards and cash prizes, according to The Fair.
“How can you think of Dad without thinking of The Fair? The Fair was everything to Dad and it was his life’s work,” son Lance Fuchs said in a fax provided to the Herald.
Honors
Fuchs was inducted into the International Association of Fairs & Expositions Hall of Fame, the Florida Federation of Fairs Hall of Fame and the 4-H Foundation Hall of Fame. On the opening day of the 2007 fair, the 55,000 square-foot exhibition hall built in 2000 was renamed the E. Darwin Fuchs Pavilion to honor more than 35 years of dedication.
A sporting life
Fuchs was also a sports enthusiast who loved big-game fishing. He and fishing buddy Stierheim did anywhere from 12 to 18 salmon fishing trips to Alaska together, Stierheim said.
“There were a lot of firsts with Dad,” son Troy said. “I was on the first voyage of the first fishing boat he bought called the Troylanda for Troy, Lance and Dad. I caught my first fish with him. I gigged my first frog with him in the Everglades. I went to my first Dolphins and Heat games with him. I’ve told the story a thousand times that as a 10-year-old I got to see every home game of the Dolphins’ perfect season because of him.”
Survivors and services
Fuchs’s survivors include his wife Mimi of 62 years, his two sons, and grandchildren Victoria, Garrett and Conner.
Visitation will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 30, at Stanfill Funeral Home, 10545 S. Dixie Hwy. A funeral mass will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1, at Church of the Epiphany, 8235 SW 57th Ave., South Miami.
Donations may be made to the Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition Scholarship Fund, 10901 SW 24th St., Miami, FL, 33165 or to IAFE Education Foundation Scholarship Fund, 3043 E. Cairo St., Springfield, Missouri, 65802.
This story was originally published January 29, 2022 at 6:20 PM.
