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Longtime Director Oversaw Growth Of Department
At the end of this month, the Rockbridge area’s tourism director, Jean Clark, will retire after more than 40 years with the department.
She began working for the department in 1980, first under Peter Goss, and then under long-time tourism director Martha Doss. Clark became the director in 1996.
In her tenure, Clark has overseen significant changes in area tourism, including the expansion of the department beyond Lexington, as well the challenges and restrictions of the pandemic.
In 1999, what had been Lexington’s tourism department grew to include both the city of Buena Vista and Rockbridge County, which Clark feels was to the benefit of all.
“Everybody brought something to the table, and it gave us an opportunity to work with three governments as opposed to one, to have a lot more partners, and to learn a lot more about who we are as a community,” she said.
“I’m not going to say that was without challenges, but if you’re a community with a population the size of Lexington, Buena Vista and Rockbridge County, why would you want to break that up into small bites? To me, a regional partnership just makes sense.”
Another change has been the shift to feature outdoor tourism, which began in earnest about a decade ago.
“Around 2010 the Blue Ridge Parkway had celebrated a significant anniversary. We had created a geo-cache trail that was at the base of the mountain to pull folks down into our communities, and we also worked to have Buena Vista and Glasgow designated as Appalachian Trail communities.”
Clark and the department worked to take advantage of this momentum.
“We had a core group of folks who started talking about the outdoor recreation, and that has just grown exponentially in terms of who’s involved, whether it’s organizations, agencies, whether it’s outfitters or folks who own businesses.”
Its natural resources are, Clark feels, an important part of what makes this area special.
“I know there are fabulous things all around the world,” she said, “But we have the Natural Bridge, we have Devils Marble Yard, we have Goshen Pass.”
Clark, whose “roots run deep in Rockbridge County,” is a graduate of Lexington High School and James Madison University, and she was drawn back to Rockbridge by family ties.
The sale of Natural Bridge to Virginia and its subsequent dedication as a state park was important both to tourism efforts and to Clark personally.
“That was an emotional day for me because I’ve lived here forever. You have this fabulous resource that brought folks in from around the world, and then there was the possibility that it was going to be sold and we didn’t know where it was going to end up,” she said.
The land was purchased by Virginia’s Department of Conservation and Recreation in 2016.
It was dedicated as the 37th state park on Sept. 24, 2016, a day Clark remembers with emotion.
“We’d been down there the night before getting ready for the ceremony, and they had the signs along the road, and they had them covered up.”
“And the next day I’m coming down Route 11 at about 7:30 in the morning, and they had the cover off the signs, and I just burst into tears,” she recalled. “This is what we’re here to do — to create these opportunities for our residents and for our visitors.”
Outdoor tourism became even more important with the onset of the Covid pandemic.
“We didn’t have our visitor’s center open, but the staff continued to work, and created a program to help say, ‘Hey, we still have some businesses that are open,’ ” said Clark.
This program, “Small Towns; Big Backyards,” was successful in bringing people to those attractions they were safely able to visit.
“Lots of folks came for the big backyards. People flocked to the safari park, because they were in their own vehicles, they could buy their tickets online; the state park, traffic at some of the hiking spots, their numbers exploded,” she said.
“It wasn’t like everything died. We were able to take that small pivot, and folks kept coming to the area.”
Even as health restrictions recede, Clark expects some of the changes from those years to continue.
“Once you’ve built on [Small Towns, Big Backyards], then it’s easy to keep using that as a jumping off point.”
“The landscape’s changed a little bit. During that time, some of the attractions made changes to either their stories or their hours of operation,” she said. “But whether it’s back to normal or not, it’s thriving.” -A new tourism director will be chosen by the regional tourism board, which includes representatives from Lexington, Buena Vista, and Rockbridge County, as well as local business owners.
The position is currently being advertised, and the board will begin reviewing applications on Sept. 15.
According to Nicholas Betts, Lexington City Council’s representative on the board, no interim director will be appointed.
“The tourism staff will continue with their current responsibilities. Any questions that the current tourism staff are unable to answer can be directed to the chair of the tourism board, Shana Layman, until a director of tourism is hired,” Betts told The News- Gazette.
“She’s done a wonderful job keeping tourism strong in this area, including Lexington, Rockbridge County and Buena Vista,” he said at the August Lexington City Council meeting.
At the August meeting of Buena Vista City Council, Mayor Bill Fitzgerald said of Clark, “She’s a remarkable person. Spending time with her has been a pleasure.” -As for the future of the department, Clark believes that it will be in good hands.
“They’ll look at all those applicants, they’ll have conversations, and see who’s a good fit. They’re smart people and they’ll make a great decision.”
She wants to leave her successor a clean slate.
“I’ve been spending the past three weeks clearing out some lists of future projects, because those were my dreams, and what I thought,” she said. “I don’t want anybody who follows in my footsteps to think this is what we need to be doing. I want whoever that is to dream their dream.”
Personally, Clark’s plans for retirement include spending more time in her family and in her community.
As she looks back over more than four decades with the tourism department, what Clark remembers most is the positivity of her experience.
“I know there’ve been challenges, but actually in the rearview mirror, it’s hard to pinpoint something that was the biggest challenge,” she said.
“It’s a joy of the job. Almost every morning, I would practically skip across the street from the parking garage. There have been some harder points in those 40 years, maybe an issue that wakes you up in the middle of the night, but for the most part, it’s just been a joy.”
