Board of Managers
As a full-time Frederick County farmer and life-long fairgoer, Joe Free was eager to join the Frederick County Agricultural Society in January 1972. He was elected to the Board of Managers in August of that same year. Mr. Free served as president of the Frederick County Agricultural Society in 1984 and 1985. He is currently chairman of the Household, Arts & Homecrafts committee and the Farmers Market committee.
Mr. Free grew up with the fair tradition, exhibiting his family’s dairy cattle and field products each year during the fair. Today his favorite fair attractions are the beef cattle exhibits, the Tractor Pull, and the nationally recognized “City Streets, Country Roads” Agriculture Education Awareness exhibit.
Although he retired from dairy farming in 1987, Mr. Free did not retire from farming. He now raises registered Hereford beef cattle and farms his cropland. He is an active member of the Frederick County Farm Bureau and is past president of the Frederick County Farm Museum. Mr. Free currently represents the Maryland Cattlemen’s Association on the Maryland Farm Bureau Board of Directors.
Mr. Free is also a past director with the Maryland Association of Agricultural Fairs and Shows, as well as a member of the Sertoma Club, the Maryland Hereford Association and the American Hereford Association.