Helford Leaves Liberty Theater

DAYTON - Reid Helford, the popular and award-winning manager of the Liberty Theater, has announced his resignation and will leave his position by the end of April.

In other news involving the theater, former Dayton Chamber Director Lisa Ronnberg also submitted her resignation as a board member of the Touchet Valley Arts Council, the nonprofit that oversees the Liberty and its cultural programs, saying her life simply got too busy.

Recognized for growing attendance at the historic theater and for making local residents' movie experience fun, Helford cited a change in his personal life as the reason for his resignation.

"I did something I always dreamed of doing, and I'm proud that it went so well," he said. "But logistically and financially, I wasn't able to do it (anymore)."

Helford moved back from Dayton to Walla Walla last year to share custody with his two sons. After he wraps up his job this spring, the 46-year-old manager intends to go back to his academic roots and participate in a sociological research project for a year, then decide what to do next.

With his Ph. D. in Sociology, Helford taught for eight years in Chicago and Southeast Washington, including at Whitman College and Columbia Basin College. His three years at the Liberty were a refreshing break from academia, but the work didn't pay well and the commute became too taxing, he said.

" Reid's done a really good job," said Dr. Norm Passmore, president of the Toucheet Valley Arts Council. "He's going to be tough to replace."

Helford joined the theater in February of 2008. He introduced kids' night, prize drawings and other incentives for local movie goers, plus had a knack for dressing the part when it came to introducing movies. He also took the Liberty online and brought new musical events to the stage, including Celtic Moon and a bluegrass concert with, among others, the Troublemakers.

During the first two years he was manager, attendance grew by about 15 percent year over year. In 2010, numbers dropped by 10 percent, but the nation's theater industry suffered as a whole, seeing attendance fall by as much as 8 percent.

Passmore said the manager's job isn't easy. It requires bookkeeping, advertising, coordinating all sorts of events and being comfortable in front of crowds. Helford has that flair, he said.

Helford will help the theater articulate a job description before the arts council launches a recruitment campaign for the position. Karen Lyman is expected to remain in her position as assistant manager.

"There's things I'll miss," Helford said in a telephone interview. "I made a lot of friends in Dayton, and I much appreciated the community's support. But I'm looking forward to having my weekends back."

In 2009, Helford won Theater Manager of the Year from the national industry magazine Box Office. Last year, he was picked as Employee of the Year by the Dayton Chamber of Commerce.

"He took the theater to the next level," Ronnberg said. "He brought professionalism, great ideas and fun."

Ronnberg said she notifi ed the board of her departure about a week ago, saying her life had just gotten too busy to do her board membership justice. She left the Chamber on Jan. 1 to take a better-paid executive position at the Columbia County Department of Public Works.