After 34 years of public service with the Ohio State Park system, Jim Brower, the first manager of Maumee Bay State Park, has announced his retirement from Ohio State Parks, effective April 1.

Brower began his career in public service in 1973, working seasonal positions as a lifeguard, park ranger and maintenance crew leader at Kiser Lake State Park near St. Paris. He graduated from the Ohio State University in 1976 with a bachelor of science degree in natural resources.

He then became a full-time park ranger at Grand Lake St. Marys State Park and subsequently was promoted to campground manager at East Harbor State Park before finally being promoted to park manager at Maumee Bay in 1978.

When he became the park manager at Maumee Bay, he was the first full-time employee hired to begin the set-up and handling of operations logistics while the park was being constructed. He credits his two assistant managers, Steve Stibaner (law enforcement) and Scott Denham (park maintenance) and Lodge GM Patrick Czarny with doing equal parts of running the day-to-day operations of Maumee Bay and other satellite parks for which they were responsible

 “I hired Steve and Scott, and those two guys have been here for almost 30 years with me,” Brower said. “As the park grew and we promoted them into their management positions, we designed our management style around our three different personalities and it has served the public well.

“Patrick has been the general manager at our concessionaire operated lodge since its beginning and has helped blend our public/private operations almost to perfection,” Brower said. “His support and leadership from that area of the park operation has been another primary reason for the park’s popularity.” 
One of the unique opportunities he had in coming to Maumee Bay was that it was still in the planning stages when he came here. “I got to start as the system’s youngest manager here and was a part of many phases of land acquisition, planning and construction, and then operations”, he said. “We got to start from scratch.”

But being involved in setting up the operations and then continuing the day in and day out services year after year was also of great enjoyment for him. “When you work this many years in one place, you realize that if you make a bad decision, sooner or later you are the one who will have to fix it,” he says. “So you have to rely on the dedication and expertise of those you work with and try to make decisions that will stand the test of time.

“I got to work with literally hundreds of hardworking, devoted employees and volunteers who came here to work as public servants,” Brower said. “They are the ones who have made Maumee Bay State Park successful and popular. I am proud to be among that group of dedicated workers.”

Brower added that the main downside to his job with Ohio State Parks was dealing with constant reductions in spending, even under expansion situations. He said he always hoped that a dedicated funding source like those for the Divisions of Wildlife and Watercraft would have been legislated to help maintain, renovate, expand and staff the state park system.

“If we had dedicated funding for the State Division of Parks & Recreation, we would be much better prepared to provide services that the public demands even more during hard economic times like now, and we would not have millions of dollars of deferred maintenance to our infrastructure waiting to be done like we do now,” he said. “Operating any park system with political funding challenges the efforts of field professionals to serve the public as efficiently as possible.”

For 28 years, Brower lived in the park with his wife Judy. They raised two sons, James, now 22, and Jeff, 20, there. “I credit my wife with being the foundation of our home life. She gave up her career to be a full-time mom and to give me a total time commitment to running the park, which often took me away from home many days and nights for training and meetings, or for long days doing special events or projects,” he said.

“My family literally lived my job 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

The Browers recently moved off the park into Oregon, but live close enough to continue using the park after his retirement.

“My wife and I are looking forward to having a summer off (the first one in 36 years) and doing more of the summer activities we’ve watched everyone else doing for all that time, ” Brower said.

In the fall, he will begin a search for a new career that may include education or citizen action endeavors, he said.

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