7 minute read
The Cliffords
Derek and Sara Clifford. photo by Bob Gustin
~by Bob Gustin
A glance at the busy calendar in the kitchen of the Clifford home reveals a lot about the family: Sara and Derek Clifford have never been ones to watch from the sidelines.
“We both have had lots of responsibilities and we’ve sometimes taken it to the extreme,” Derek said.
“It’s a part of who we are,” Sara added.
Sara spent 12 years as editor of the Brown County Democrat newspaper, from 2009 to 2021, when she resigned to accept a position as managing editor for the Indiana Journal of Earth Sciences through the Indiana Geological and Water Survey at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Derek has been a local leader in the entertainment and hospitality circles, serving on the boards of the chamber of commerce, convention and visitors bureau, and the convention and visitors commission, among other posts. Previously managing partner of Rawhide Ranch, he is now director of production at Hard Truth Distilling Co. and Quaff ON! Brewing Co.
But between those professional responsibilities, the couple also takes time to help in other community activities, to support three sons involved in many activities of their own, and to host a foreign exchange student.
They are also both leaders in Cub Scout Pack 190, Derek as cubmaster and treasurer, and Sara as pack committee chair, advancement chair, and assistant leader of the Bear den.
“We have enough skillsets and have been around lots of kids. Enough people will sit on the sidelines and complain, but not enough get involved and try to make changes,” said Sara.
Sara is from Paris, Ill., and graduated from DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., where she studied creative writing, journalism, and Spanish. Derek, from Westville, Ill., has a degree in theater from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
They met at Camp Ondessonk, a Catholic summer camp in southern Illinois. Both were campers there as children and teenagers but didn’t cross paths until they were in their early 20s. Sara was working as marketing and development director there and Derek took a job running the camp’s food service program.
“I was struck by her beauty,” Derek said, “but I thought someone that pretty was probably not the easiest to get along with.” After he introduced himself to her in 2001, he was pleasantly surprised to discover he had been wrong about Sara’s personality.
“I had just moved to the camp,” Sara said. “I thought I had resigned myself to live with my dog and be by myself. Then in walked Derek. He was about my age, loved camping and nature. He was hard-working. Watching him around kids, I knew he would be a good partner.”
Derek was laid off from his Ondessonk job in 2002, and soon after, Sara decided to pursue a job in journalism.
Sara moved to her great-aunt’s old farm in Carlisle, Ind., just north of Vincennes, and was hired as an associate news editor at the
Vincennes Sun-Commercial. Derek got a job with a grocery brokerage handling sales and grocery shelf resets, and Vincennes was the center of his territory.
Their relationship grew, and they were married in 2003.
Though they had little time together because of their job schedules, they took turns planning weekend trips around Indiana. One of those trips was to Nashville, Ind., and they remarked on how “cool” it would be to live there.
Another trip was to French Lick, where, in 2005, they saw an advertisement in the Bedford Times-Mail newspaper, looking for a manager to live at Rawhide Ranch in southern Brown County. They discovered one of the partners for Rawhide Ranch was from Paris, Ill., and knew members of Sara’s family. Another was a DePauw graduate.
Derek took the job and Sara began searching for a job near Brown County. She interviewed with Mike Lewis, then editor of the Bedford Times-Mail, and found he used to live just a few houses away from the Rawhide Ranch property.
The couple saw all these coincidences as signposts helping to point a direction for their life decisions.
Sara took the job as lifestyle editor in Bedford, and spent five years there, commuting from Rawhide Ranch. She took the editor’s job at the Brown County Democrat to be closer to home as the Clifford family grew.
She won nearly 100 individual journalism awards at the Democrat, and the paper itself won the Hoosier State Press Association’s general excellence award each year she was editor. It was the most honored paper of its size in the state from 2009 to 2021. Three times during those years, the Democrat won the HSPA Blue Ribbon Award, given to the paper that best serves its readers, all things considered.
But long, hard working hours for Sara came along with the awards, as she routinely worked 60 hours a week or more in a salaried position.
The Cliffords have three sons. Caleb, 16, is involved in high school soccer and musicals, the show choir, 4-H, and St. Agnes Catholic church activities. Samuel, 10, is a member of his school’s robotics team, 4-H robotics programs, Scouts, the “Circle the State with Song” program, and was chosen as a school ambassador. Henry, 9, is learning jujitsu, and participates in Scouts, 4-H, and Brown County Parks and Recreation sports. Sara and Derek help in many of those activities, and are also hosts for Victor, an exchange student from Spain who lives with the family.
She resigned the editor’s job in 2021 to take the job at IU, as her job had become more stressful and she needed to spend more time with her family.
“I didn’t have the same heart for it,” Sara said of her decision to leave the Democrat. “I was not serving the readers the way they deserved to be served.”
As managing editor for the geological survey publications, Sara finds scientists for peer review of earth science papers, edits the articles, and manages their production. She also writes a regular electronic newsletter, the E-Geo News, about survey research and activities. Several times a year, she also volunteers to write for Ondessonk’s newsletters.
Derek, who had increasing responsibilities at Rawhide Ranch as manager and operating partner, was likewise ready for a change.
“We lived at the ranch, so I was always on call,” he said. “I realized I had to do something different when I was on the couch trying to take a nap and I heard the phone ring in another room. I felt my heart rhythm change, and I knew it was not healthy.”
One of his side jobs while at the ranch was plowing snow from parking lots, and one of his clients was Hard Truth Distilling Co. When he put out the word that he was looking for other work, the offer came from Quaff ON!, a sister company to Hard Truth. He started out as general manager of the brewery before being promoted to director of production of both companies. He said he makes sure everything is dealt with responsibly, from ordering original resources to distilling, personnel, all the way through to distribution.
While working at Rawhide Ranch, Derek became active in the convention and visitors bureau, the small lodging association, and the chamber of commerce. He eventually became treasurer of the CVB and president of the chamber. He said his goal was partly self-serving, making sure his type of business, as well as his business itself, was represented. Also, he wanted to do his part in making the organizations successful. He is still a member of the convention and visitors commission, the appointed committee that allocates innkeeper’s tax dollars.
Though Sara is no longer in community journalism, both are vocal about the importance of local newspapers as many are experiencing circulation losses.
Derek said journalists are paid to be watchdogs over local government and allow people to go on with their lives without that direct responsibility.
“I truly fear for the future of our communities,” he said. “The general public doesn’t tend to understand what they have in a weekly newspaper.”
