Dick Kinzel is often seen walking through the parks he oversees as CEO/chairman of Cedar Fair. He smiles at everyone, talks with anyone who approaches him, and most often is able to call each employee by name. Those walks are important to him. “I am a strong believer in getting out from behind my desk and getting out into the park. It’s not only fun for me, but I see a great deal when I’m out there,” Kinzel reports. He doesn’t wear a radio, and he doesn’t carry a clipboard. Unless you get close enough to see his name tag, which simply reads “Dick,” you wouldn’t have any idea he was one of the most respected park officials in the world today. Kinzel entered the park business at age 31—much later than most of his contemporaries—and he has never forgotten his days on the front line. He appreciates what his vast number of employees and managers do, and he is quick to shake their hands and thank them personally. He joined Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, in 1971 and climbed the ranks quickly, serving as witness to huge changes in all aspects of the industry as it has matured during those 34 years.

Great Expectations
One of the biggest changes that have taken place, according to Kinzel, is in the art of guest service. People want to be more pampered and cared for today than anytime in his career. “We are putting more emphasis on customer service today than ever, for all ages. It is true that the aging population expects more, but in today’s market, everyone expects more. There are now more complaints and people on the whole are less forgiving. They are more knowledgeable about what they should expect.”

He points out that with the hefty admission charges of today, people expect a higher level of service, and the parks that don’t offer that high level will suffer from lower attendance and lower per capita spending. “Competition has forced us to pay more attention to our guests and to treat them differently than we did, even 10 years ago,” Kinzel points out. “We see it in the results. People are not going to return to a park that does-n’t meet their expectations.”

Cedar Point has gained a reputation for making sure its product meets expec­tations. Mats Wedin, president/CEO of Liseberg, Gothenburg, Sweden, says one of Kinzel’s strengths is his ability to strategize and to stay focused. “In his early years with the park, he created a quality standard, and through the years he has been able to grow the park ahead of the curve and keep a consistency of quality in all areas of that park, includ­ing the meeting and beating of his guests’ expectations,” Wedin notes.

But it’s not just about excellent cus­tomer service. Over the years, Kinzel has seen a need for operations to change with the times. “Technology has changed things significantly, and today’s parks are safer than they have ever been,” he says. “The involvement of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions with the major issues of the day has grown along with those needs. They have helped us unite to fight govern­ment intervention in our business, and that alone is very significant.”

However many changes have taken place through the years and no matter try how much bigger the rides and attractions are today, Kinzel says the basics of the park indus try haven’t changed: “Take the lipstick off any park and underneath, it’s still a carnival. Disney changed the appearance of parks in the 1950s with Disney-land, but we are all still operating dressed-up carnivals.”

Another thing that hasn’t changed is Kinzel’s humble and generous manage­ment style—generous in that he trusts in the judgments of his managers and allows them to run their own parks, rea­sonably free from corporate interven­tion. “For a company our size, we have a very, very small corporate staff,” Kinzel notes. “The park managers know their parks the best and I don’t want to inter­fere with them. I like to think we are here for support if they need it.”

Liseberg’s Wedin says Kinzel’s style of management is among the best in the industry. “He’s the perfect example of someone who has strong business management, but he also man­ages from his heart. That’s very impor­tant in this business,” Wedin says. “He’s an icon as far as I’m concerned.”

Bob Masterson, president of Ripley Entertainment, also appreciates Kinzel’s management style. “While others are out hyping their stock, Dick keeps a low profile. Sure, he keeps a strong eye on not only his stock, but also the long-term health of the com­pany. He knows stock prices will follow a good performance,” Masterson says. “During his years at Cedar Point, he has stayed very accessible and very vis­ible. Everyone in the park seems to know him, and he calls most of his frontline employees by their first names. One can’t get much higher in integrity than Dick Kinzel.”

Quick Climb to the Top
Kinzel, who dropped out of college after one year, didn’t enter the amusement park industry until 1972, when he was 31, married to his wife, Judy, and the father of four. Following his short stint at Wisconsin State College, he joined the Canteen food-service company in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio. He spent 10 years there, ending up as the commissary manager.

In early 1971, he sent his resume to Walt Disney World, which was getting ready to open in central Florida in October of that year. One of Canteen’s purveyors, upon learning that Kinzel was interested in the park food business, told him about an opening at nearby Cedar Point in the food department. In addition to sending a query to Disney, Kinzel also fired off a resume to the Sandusky park.

“I heard back from Walt Disney World, and when they asked me what my salary requirements were, I said $15,000 per year. They said that was too much, and I wouldn’t budge, so I stayed in Toledo,” Kinzel recalls. “Then I heard from Cedar Point and accepted the job there, for $13,000. I started as a supervisor in the food department.”

Little did he know at the time that he would soon be on a fast track to the top. Four years later, in 1975, several of the park’s top officials resigned and went to work for Marriott as that company began building two theme parks. By then, Kinzel was director of foods. “Several openings over me occurred,” Kinzel recalls. “With so many leaving, Bob Munger, the general manager, called me in and promoted me to director of operations. I had no experience on that side of the business, but I studied hard over the winter and was ready by spring.”

In 1976, Kinzel’s first season on the operations side, Cedar Point was one of the first in the country to install an Arrow “Corkscrew” and “that decision was one of the best we ever made,” he says, remembering that gate attendance topped 3 million for the first time, putting the park on the map. “We went gangbusters from then on.”

The Big Break
In 1978, Cedar Point purchased Valley Fair amusement park in Shakopee, Minnesota, and Munger sent Kinzel to manage that facility. At the time, the parks were publicly traded and sold as over-the-counter shares, but in 1983, Munger decided to pull them off the market. That year, Kinzel became an equity partner in the organization when he was part of the leveraged buyout to take it private.

“A major park company was making a very strong play for us, and we didn’t want them to take us over, so we bought it ourselves,” Kinzel says. At that point, the company, which owned both Cedar Point and Valley Fair, took one word from each of its parks’ names and became Cedar Fair.

In 1986, Munger retired and Kinzel, being the only other park manager in the company besides Munger himself, was transferred to Cedar Point, where he became general manager and president of the company.

The following year, the company formed a master limited partnership, went public again and began being traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FUN. Today, the much larger company has that same structure.

More Coasters
Following the successful installation of the “Corkscrew” in 1976, the doubletracked “Gemini” was added in 1978. The new coaster pushed attendance again, and Cedar Point hit another record at 3.1 million. Following those two installations, attendance started taking a dip, and no major coasters were installed at either of the Cedar Fair parks for several years. “When I came back to Cedar Point, it was obvious to me what we needed to do to increase attendance and get our guests excited and keep them excited about the park,” Kinzel says. “We needed to add coasters.”

One of Kinzel’s first moves was to create the world’s largest steel coaster. He and his team had planned for Arrow to build a 185-foot-tall steel coaster, just tall enough to set the world height record at the time. It was set to debut during the 1988 season, but at the last minute it was decided to go another 15 feet and build the world’s first 200-foot coaster instead. “Magnum XL-200” was built for $7.5 million, and if Cedar Point hadn’t already been on the radar of coaster fans throughout the world, “Magnum” put it there.

“It paid for itself in one season,” Kinzel notes. “It cost us $7.5 million, and at the end of the year, we showed a bottom line of $10 million. I was amazed at its tremendous acceptance.”

It was at that point Kinzel made the decision to make Cedar Point the “Coaster Capital of the World.” While most parks of the time were busy becoming theme parks, Cedar Point stepped aside to remain a thrill and ride destination. “Our coasters were and still are our theme,” adds Kinzel.

With that mission in mind, big things soon hit the drawing board. The “Millennium Force,” the world’s first 300-foot-tall coaster, was created in 2000, and three years later, “Top Thrill Dragster,” the world’s first 400-foot coaster, premiered. Kinzel is proud of those accomplishments, but he is also quite pleased with how the rest of the park grew along the way. “I am the first to realize that we need to provide much more than the world’s best coasters,” he says.

But that shouldn’t be a problem, according to attorney Tom Sheehan, who believes Kinzel has struck a great balance at Cedar Point. “Dick Kinzel is an aggressive innovator, and those skills have kept Cedar Point very prominent in the amusement industry,” Sheehan says. “He works with manufacturers to bring in top-quality, unique rides and then gracefully integrates them into the park’s philosophy of keeping a balance of thrill rides and family rides.”

This year, Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, will top Cedar Point and open the world’s tallest coaster with the 456-foot “Kingda Ka.” But that doesn’t faze Kinzel. “We may not have the tallest or fastest, but we’re still the only park with coasters of 200, 300, and 400 feet.”

Kinzel is noncommittal about plans to go for the record again. A 500-footer? “More coasters are in our capital plans,” he says. “We know people expect the best coasters in the world at Cedar Point, and we will build more coasters. They are what brought us to the dance.”

Family-Friendly Career
While many talk about how demanding the business is compared to previous jobs, Kinzel says he was initially relieved at the thought of so much free time.

“For 10 years before I joined Cedar Point, I was in food service, which oper­ated 12 months a year, 24 hours a day. If a chef or manager called in sick on Christmas Day, I had to solve the prob­lem or go into work myself. At the park, which is seasonal, I only had to work really hard and long for four months a year, and for the rest of the time, I led a pretty normal life,” Kinzel recalls.

When he and his family moved back to Sandusky in 1986, they moved into a house adjacent to the park, where he could walk or jog to work. “The kids thought it was great, and as they were all growing up, all four worked in the park in some capacity,” the proud father says. “In fact, three of the four met their spouses while working at Cedar Point.”

Bart Kinzel, the only one of the four still in the business, started in food serv­ice at Valley Fair on his 14th birthday. Today, he is director of food service at Geauga Lake, in Aurora, Ohio, which is owned by Cedar Fair.

And the family has been nothing but supportive since the beginning. Kinzel says Judy has made his career possible. She has been understanding of the long hours and strong commitment that run­ning a major park company requires. “She has never complained, and that has made my career in this industry possible,” he says.

One question he is often asked is how often during the week does he go home for a quick lunch with Judy, since his office is so close to home. Kinzel laughs: “In all these years, I have never gone home for lunch. Judy has always told me that she married me for better or worse, not for lunch.”

An added benefit to being the top guy at Cedar Point and living next to the park is the ability to impress one’s seven grandchildren. “All these years, I’ve been the greatest grandpa in the world,” he says, chuckling again. “Now that we have the indoor water-park, I’m the greatest grandpa in the world year-round.”

Barometer of Success
While very optimistic about the future of the industry, Kinzel is quick to point out that “we will never see the growth we saw in the 1970s and the 1990s. We’re a mature industry now, and future growth is going to happen at a much slower pace.”

The expansion that now needs to occur, he contends, is internal growth that will lead to per capita growth. “That will be our true barometer of suc­cess,” he says. “We will personally see growth in our hotels, in our camp­grounds, and in our new indoor water-park resort hotel in Sandusky.”

Kinzel announced to the board two years ago that he would leave the com­pany in January 2008, at 67 years old. Since then, he has been working on a succession plan. But will he retire after he leaves Cedar Point? “Not if I still have the same health and energy level that I do now,” he says. “If that’s the case, I will surely need to find some­thing to do.”

In the meantime, he is staying focused and maintaining the course for Cedar Fair. And he still believes in the need to invest in the parks. For 2005, Cedar Fair will be investing nearly $80 million in capital for its 12 amusement parks and waterparks. In 2004, those parks brought in 12.6 million guests.

“I love my job and have never regret­ted a day that I had to go into the office,” Kinzel says.

“But as all seasonal park operators, I honestly do look forward to closing day of the season. In the spring you gear up to open, and then it’s a long summer. If you’ve had a successful season, you’re a happy person all winter long. If you had a down season, you worry all winter and work hard to make it a better season next year.”