Industry legend Dick Knoebel passes away
The longtime leader of Pennsylvania's Knoebels Amusement Resort has passed away.
Richard "Dick" Knoebel died this morning at the age of 87. Knoebel served as the family-owned park's president from 1988 until last year, when he turned over the role to his son, Brian.
For his lifetime of work overseeing and expanding the park, Dick Knoebel was inducted in the IAAPA Hall of Fame in 2014.
"Dick's legacy lives on in every laugh, every ride, and every tradition that makes Knoebels feel like home," the Knoebel family said in a joint statement released by the park. "He loved this park, he loved the guests who made it special, and he loved the team who cared for it each and every day."
Previously: Why Knoebels deserves to be part of your summer vacation
Replies (4)
This is sad news. My family would do a cross country road trip every summer and always made a day out of a stop at Knoebels. What a lovely special park. The care which Dick Knoebel and the entire family puts into the rides, the spaces, and the service was instantly obvious. Anyone with any interest in theme park history should go to see the three working carousels, the carousel organs, and the carousel museum-which is something special-as well as their classic haunted mansion dark ride, and the one-two punch of wooden coasters in Phoenix and Twister. They don't wait a decade to re-track these gems and then send out a press release, like some theme park chains, they just quietly work on what needs work year in and year out. I hope that the spirit of Dick Knoebel's leadership stays alive with the next generation. My condolences to the family and the entire Knoebels community.
The two things I think of when I think of Knoebels:
The fact that they still do the ring game on their carousel: where people reach out and grab tiny fixed objects while the ride is spinning (and that thing is going fast AF). You can read reports online of people jamming/cutting their fingers, I'm sure it happens often, and everyone is just OK with it because its Knoebels. I mean sure you are accepting/assuming liability when participating, and it was common for carousels back like 100 years ago...but I am confident if any corporate park were doing this they would be getting sued left and right. NGL I have never actually played the ring game, that thing is going too fast for me to feel comfortable doing that.
And not only that, the operators seem to always be hopping on/off the ride mid cycle lol.
The second is the Flying Turns coaster. I remember when this was built, going year after year after year of on and off testing and adjustments, I personally thought "what the heck are these people wasting their time with this for when there's so much else to think about when running a park and they could be doing other new stuff? This thing is never going to be safe to open." And then randomly after 6+ years of testing they were like "okay its good to open now" and it is now one of the best rides in the park. That was true dedication to get that thing operating!
A life well-lived. God Bless Dick and everything he did for Knoebel's and subsequently the amusement park world. I only got to visit Knoebel's once but it immediately became one of my favorites. Thank you Dick for all of the years of fun and for sharing your love of the classic amusement park.
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Very sad but at least he lived a long, exemplary life and was at the helm of a park of which he could be very proud. Apart from the great rides, good vibes and free admission, one thing that struck me - I neglected to mention this - is the demographic attracted by Knoebels. I've never heard of fights breaking out at this park and they don't need metal detectors or chaperones for teenagers. Anyway, it's the end of an era but this wonderful park will carry on.