Curtis D. Summers (September 17, 1929 – May 11, 1992) was an American engineer and

roller coaster A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...

designer credited for designing or providing structural engineering on 25 wooden roller coasters around the world. He earned a degree in Architectural Engineering from

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

and was a registered engineer in 40 states.

Career

Curtis D. Summers began his career in the amusement industry when he was contacted by Cincinnati's Coney Island to provide structural repairs to the park's Shooting Star roller coaster. He was hired by the Hixson Engineering Company and worked with Coney to keep the park's two wooden coasters, Shooting Star and Wildcat, structurally sound. In 1972, Summers left Hixson Engineering to start his own firm, Curtis D. Summers, Inc., based in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, Ohio The owners of Coney Island,

Taft Broadcasting The Taft Broadcasting Company (also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated) was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company was rooted in the Taft family, family of William Howard Taft, the 27th Presid ...

, closed the park in order to escape the repeated flooding from the Ohio River and built a new park,

Kings Island Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and expan ...

, 25 miles to the north. Summers was asked to design most of the structures of the new park and worked alongside John C. Allen to assist him by providing the structural engineering on the two new wooden coasters constructed for the park. The Taft Broadcasting Company, and its successor,

Kings Entertainment Company Kings Entertainment Company (KECO) owned and/or operated six theme parks around the world. The company was originally owned by Taft Broadcasting and in 1984 was purchased for $167.5 million by senior executives and general managers of Taft's Amuse ...

(KECO), went on to build two more amusement parks,

Kings Dominion Kings Dominion is an amusement park located in Doswell, Virginia, north of Richmond, Virginia, Richmond and south of Washington, D.C. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park opened to the public on May 3, 1975, and features more than 60 ri ...

and

Canada's Wonderland Canada's Wonderland, formerly known as Paramount Canada's Wonderland, is a amusement park located in Vaughan, Ontario, a municipality within the Greater Toronto Area. Opened in 1981 by the Taft Broadcasting Company and the Great-West Life As ...

. They purchased an existing park,

Carowinds Carowinds is a amusement park located adjacent to Interstate 77 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The park straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina state line, with a portion of the park located in Fort Mill, South Carolina. However, it has an of ...

; managed

California's Great America California's Great America, often shortened to Great America, is a amusement park located in Santa Clara, California. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, it originally opened in 1976 as one of two parks built by the Marriott Corporation. Califor ...

and were co-owners of

Australia's Wonderland Wonderland Sydney (originally known as Australia's Wonderland), was an amusement park in Eastern Creek, Sydney, Australia. Officially opened in December 1985 by the Premier of New South Wales, Neville Wran, the park was the largest in the southe ...

. Curtis D. Summers and his firm continued to be the primary engineers for each of the parks. When John Allen retired from the coaster-building business in 1976, Summers took over as the primary designer of wooden coaster projects for the Taft/KECO chain of amusement parks. In 1978 KECO started building The Beast at

. Summers' firm was brought on board to provide structural engineering for the massive helix finale. The project was built in-house and was overseen by Charles (Charlie) Dinn, Kings Island's Director of Construction, Maintenance and Engineering. Dinn left Kings Island in 1984 to start his own firm the

Dinn Corporation Dinn Corporation was a roller coaster designing and manufacturing company established in West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio, West Chester, Ohio, in 1983 by Charles Dinn. The company is noted for moving and rebuilding several existing woode ...

. In 1985 he contacted Summers' firm to provide the design for the restoration of the helix of

Paragon Park Paragon Park was an amusement park located on Nantasket Beach in Hull, Massachusetts. It closed in 1984. Rides Among the amusement rides in operation during Paragon Park's history was a traditional-style Philadelphia Toboggan Company carousel (PT ...

's Giant Coaster which Dinn was moving to Wild World in Largo, Maryland. That was the start of relationship that lasted until 1991. Following a few more coaster moves and rebuilds, the two teamed up in 1987 to start building new coasters. The two companies always operated separately but every new coaster built by the

from 1988 to 1991 was engineered by Curtis D. Summers. Ten of these "Dinn & Summers" coasters were built during that time period, and many of them featured record-breaking drops. Dinn retired in 1991 and closed the

. Summers went on to design one more coaster, Jupiter at Kijima Amusement Park in Japan. The coaster was built by

Intamin Intamin Amusement Rides is a design and manufacturing company in Schaan, Liechtenstein. It is best known for creating thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The Intamin brand name is a syllabic abbreviation for "international amusement ins ...

and opened in July 1992, a few months after Summers died. Two of the designers from Curtis Summers Inc. went on to start their own firms. Dennis Starkey started the Stand Company and Larry Bill worked a number of years for

Custom Coasters International Custom Coasters International (CCI) was one of the premier wooden roller coaster manufacturers in the world and produced 34 wooden coasters in eleven years — more than any other company in recent times. It was located in West Chester, Ohio. His ...

before becoming one of the founders of

The Gravity Group The Gravity Group is a wooden roller coaster design firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The firm was founded in July 2002 out of the engineering team of the famed but now defunct Custom Coasters International. The core group of designer ...

Wooden roller coasters

Miscellaneous projects

, design of renovation and additions to park and 8,000 seat amphitheater *

, complete park design including buildings and ride stations *

Kentucky Kingdom Kentucky Kingdom, formerly known as Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, is an amusement park in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. The park includes a collection of amusement rides and the Hurricane Bay water park. Kentucky Kingdom is located at the ...

, Flume foundation design *

, complete park design including buildings, ride stations and steel frame mountain *

Kennywood Kennywood is an amusement park located in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, just southeast of Pittsburgh. The park opened on May 30, 1899, as a trolley park attraction at the end of the Mellon family's Monongahela Street Railway. It was purchased in 1 ...

, foundation design for Shuttle Loop and Pirate Ship *Raging Waters Waterpark (Wildwood, NJ), design of speed slide and raft ride *Surf Cincinnati, design of speed slide and raft ride *

Six Flags St. Louis Six Flags St. Louis, originally known as Six Flags Over Mid-America, is an amusement park featuring characters and rides from many Warner Bros. films and tv shows such as, Looney Tunes, DC Comics, and formerly Scooby-Doo. It is located in Eureka ...

, foundation for Looping Star (Jet Scream) coaster * Splashtown, USA, water ride supports and foundation

Sources

Curtis D. Summers, Inc. "Listing of Representative Projects," inserted into a company promotional booklet, likely distributed at the IAAPA trade show circa 1987.

References

External links

Curtis D. Summers
at the

Roller Coaster DataBase Roller Coaster DataBase (RCDB) is a roller coaster and amusement park database begun in 1996 by Duane Marden. It has grown to feature statistics and pictures of over 10,000 roller coasters from around the world. Publications that have mentioned ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Summers, Curtis D. Roller coaster designers 20th-century American engineers Kansas State University alumni 1929 births 1992 deaths People from Abilene, Kansas