Richard L. Kinzel (born July 25, 1940) is the former CEO of

Cedar Fair Entertainment Company Cedar Fair, L.P., formally Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, is a publicly traded master limited partnership headquartered at its Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates eleven amusement parks, nine include ...

. He served as president and CEO of

Cedar Fair Cedar Fair, L.P., formally Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, is a publicly traded master limited partnership headquartered at its Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates eleven amusement parks, nine included- ...

until January 2, 2012, when his successor,

Matt Ouimet Matt Ouimet is executive chairman of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, a publicly traded company that owns 12 amusement parks in the United States and Canada. Early life Born in 1958 in Cooperstown, New York and raised in Unadilla NY. His first ...

, took over as president and CEO. He was involved in

for 39 years.

Career highlights

Valleyfair

Richard Kinzel started out at Cedar Point as an employee but was transferred to

Valleyfair Valleyfair is a amusement park in Shakopee, Minnesota, United States. Owned by Cedar Fair, the park opened in 1976 and now features over 75 rides and attractions including eight roller coasters. Valleyfair also has a water park called Soak Cit ...

in 1978 to run the newly acquired park. He served as the General Manager of Valleyfair from 1978 to 1986. In 1986, the then-CEO of Cedar Fair stepped down due to health issues. Kinzel was promoted to president and CEO.

CEO of Cedar Fair

When Kinzel stepped in as CEO of Cedar Fair, the company owned just two parks:

and

Cedar Point Cedar Point is a amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. Opened in 1870, it is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the U.S. behind Lake Compounce. Cedar Point is owned and op ...

. His first major highlight was the installation of

Magnum XL-200 Magnum XL-200, colloquially known as simply Magnum, is a steel roller coaster built by Arrow Dynamics at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. When it opened in 1989, it was the tallest, fastest, and steepest complete-circuit roller coaster in the wo ...

, a

hypercoaster A hypercoaster can mean one of two things: *Any continuous-circuit roller coaster with a height or drop measuring greater than 200 feet Or, more narrowly: *Any complete-circuit roller coaster with a height or drop between 200 and 299 feet ...

at Cedar Point that was intended to draw more crowds to the park. "Magnum" was the first coaster to break 200 feet and is considered by many to have started the so-called "coaster war" competition between amusement parks, which would make up the majority of Kinzel's tenure at Cedar Fair. In 1992, Cedar Fair made their first acquisition with Dick Kinzel as CEO;

Dorney Park Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom is an American amusement and water park located between Allentown and Emmaus, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The park features 64 rides, including six roller coasters, other adult ...

was acquired from Harris Weinstein.

Six Flags Worlds of Adventure 6 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 6 or six may also refer to: * AD 6, the sixth year of the AD era * 6 BC, the sixth year before the AD era * The month of June Science * Carbon, the element with atomic number 6 * 6 Hebe, an asteroid People ...

was acquired by Cedar Fair in 2004, and all

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.

and

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

theming, walk around character costumes and souvenirs were either removed or destroyed upon completion of the sale. The

SeaWorld Ohio SeaWorld Ohio was a theme park and marine zoological park, located in Aurora, Ohio. It was owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, formerly known as Busch Entertainment Corporation. The Ohio location was the second SeaWorld park t ...

exhibit was shuttered and Six Flags vacated the animal exhibits and transported the animals themselves to the company's other parks. In 2006, Kinzel and Cedar Fair acquired the former

Paramount Parks Paramount Parks was the operator of Paramount's Kings Island, Paramount's Kings Dominion, Paramount's Great America, Paramount's Carowinds, and Paramount Canada's Wonderland, which annually attracted about 13 million patrons. National Amuseme ...

. The deal added all five parks plus their water parks to the Cedar Fair chain. Cedar Fair's revenue went from $569 million to $1 billion. Kinzel is most notable for this move because it expanded Cedar Fair into new markets with competition. In 2010, Kinzel announced that he would retire. On June 20, 2011, it was announced that

would take over as CEO of Cedar Fair, effective immediately. Dick Kinzel officially retired on January 2, 2012, when his contract was up.

Life after Cedar Fair

In an article in the ''

Toledo Blade ''The Blade'', also known as the ''Toledo Blade'', is a newspaper in Toledo, Ohio published daily online and printed Thursday and Sunday by Block Communications. The newspaper was first published on December 19, 1835. Overview The first issue o ...

'', Kinzel stated that life would be very different once he retired. He hadn't had a summer off since joining the company and so planned to take many vacations. Though he'd been asked to work on a few projects, he wanted to take some time off. On May 9, 2013, Kinzel announced that he would be stepping down from the board of directors of Cedar Fair. He also said he plans to stay in Sandusky but has a winter home in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinzel, Dick 1940 births Living people Cedar Fair American chief executives American entertainment industry businesspeople