Dick Knoebel Interview
September 6th, 2004

Kevin Toth: Tell us a little bit about yourself, the history of your career, and where things are at for you at this point in your life.

Dick Knoebel: I’m 65 years old now and have been working in the park since before I went to first grade. My only time off was for college and 3 years service in the USMC. I, along with my family and employee team, have built Knoebels into a world class family resort. I’m still actively engaged in the continued growth and improvement of the park. I have 2 sons who are involved and my brother Buddy has a son and a daughter also involved.

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This interview was orginally posting on OnRideCentral (ORC). Recently, Coasterdom and ORC have become one site, and all of the content once found on ORC, will start showing up here.

In September of 2003, Dorney Park announced the unfortunate news that Hercules would be removed, and closed forever on Labor Day. With the bad news came some excellent news, that there would be a 2005 roller coaster addition to the park in Hercules’ former area. Much speculation has been made as to whether this coaster will have underground tunnels, how fast/high it will be and how many inversions it will have, but nothing has been released yet. It looks as though we’ll have to wait until later in 2004 to get all the details. For now, I’ve decided to get a few more details on the removal of Hercules and the park in general. I would like to thank Chris Ozimek for taking time out of his busy schedule to partake in the interview.

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Cedar Point has been considered the “World’s Greatest Amusement Park” for many years now. Enthusiasts and general public all over the world agree that this little paradise located in Sandusky, Ohio truly is a dream park. For the 2003 season, the park plans to open their 16th roller coaster, the world record-breaking “Top Thrill Dragster,” a colossal 420-foot “strata-coaster” that redefines the term “speed” and races into the record books as the biggest and fastest roller coaster ever! I got a chance to sit down and talk with Janice Witherow, the Public Relations Manager at Cedar Point, to chat about this and a number of other topics. (more…)