Gene West, toymaker who made the Ventura County Fair spin, jump and roll dies at 92
Gene West filled the Ventura County Fair with wooden toys that flipped, spun and even jumped the moon in movements powered by pulleys, levers and cranks but absolutely never by batteries.
“There were as many adults fascinated with them as there were kids,” said Peggy Kroener, longtime superintendent of the fair’s youth expo where West’s hand-painted mechanical toys held center stage for nearly 20 years. “He would see someone struggling with how to make a toy work and he would walk up, gently show them and then move on.”
The engineer who evolved into a toymaker died on March 26 at age 92. Patricia Flynn West, his wife and constant companion at the fair, died three months earlier at age 94.
Friends and family honored West at the Santa Clara Chapel in Oxnard on Monday. Many others remembered him on a fair Facebook post.
“Going to see his toys was one of the best reasons to go to the fair,” Sheri Novack Tobey wrote. “My kids loved them.”
Eugene Joseph West was born in New Jersey on Oct. 4, 1930, and came to California as a teenager, graduating from high school in Santa Maria. After joining the National Guard, he served as an Army cook in Japan during the Korean War.
After his service, West enrolled at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, graduating in 1957 with a degree in mechanical engineering and embarked on a career in aerospace. Hired by Aerojet in Sacramento, he worked on heat shields for the Apollo 11 lunar landing module. Later, he was an engineer at what is now Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, working at the Naval Ship Missile Systems station.
The family lived in Oxnard and West volunteered for organizations including the Braille Institute and The ARC of Ventura County. He was a quiet man who made his mark through actions, said his daughter, Mary Bagdazian.
Read more: Reports point to possible safety hazards at Ventura County Fair grandstands; repairs planned
Shortly before West retired in 1994, a neighbor invited him to join the Channel Islands Wood Carvers. A voracious reader, he found library books that offered instructions on making mechanical toys. He turned the diagrams and pictures into butterflies that fluttered their wings, acrobats who flipped and jockeys who rode horses.
“He was always in his workshop in his garage,” Bagdazian said. “If you didn’t know where he was, that’s where he was. He loved it.”
He made his toys so children and adults could figure out exactly how they worked with the pulley or hinge or lever prominently displayed. West would offer explanations in the demonstrations he would lead in high school physics classes.
Kroener started serving as the fair’s youth expo superintendent in the mid-1990s. She isn’t sure exactly when West started bringing the toys.
“It’s been forever,” she said. “He’s had a presence In the building as long as I can remember.”
He and his wife were a team. She would help paint the toys and clean them before the fair. They would arrive to the youth building early to inspect the toys and see if any needed repairs. Throughout the day, they would answer questions, give demonstrations, eat packed lunches together and watch people play.
"I think the fascination for the kids is that there are no batteries," he said in a 2013 story in the Ventura County Star. "You have to interact with the toys before they do anything, and it's kind of an experience in trying to learn how to make something work and work properly."
The toys appeared everywhere, on display at Moorpark College, Gull Wings Children’s Museum, Olivas Adobe Historic Park and other venues. West decided early not to sell any of them.
“He said if I sold them, it would be too much like work,” Bagdazian said.
Like everything else, the toy show was interrupted by the pandemic. The fair was canceled in 2020 and 2021. It was a blow to the Wests, suddenly deprived of what had become one of the highlights of the year.
The fair returned last year and so did the toys, delivered by family members. West was unsteady on his feet and experiencing dementia. Bagdazian and her brother, Greg West, brought him to the youth building for visits in his wheelchair.
“A lot of people came up and told him, 'Thank you,'” she said.
West and his wife both died of natural causes. Instead of flowers, the family asked people to make donations to The ARC of Ventura County. They also announced, in the obituary, they will continue to bring the toys to the fair so their father's creations can rotate, roll and bob once again.
Tom Kisken covers health care and other news for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tom.kisken@vcstar.com or 805-437-0255.
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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ventura County Fair toymaker Gene West dies at 92
