Whether it's on Facebook, by email, or in person, we hear it over and over, "I'm your #1 fan!"

That's always great to hear.

Fans are certainly a good thing to have (especially during this summer's heat wave!).

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Who *are* these guys?

We didn't catch their names, but are sure glad Tyler from our Training & Development department captured this street performance on video for us.

Mrs. Koch really got a kick out of this.

In Kringle's Kafe, there are quite a few depictions of The Man in Red.

One in particular took a tumble recently.

Ouch!

But Santa kept his head held high ...

...along with his sense of humor!

...what it was like just six months ago.

Please remember to stay hydrated on these hot days!

Dan Koch is the "middle child" of the Koch family; he's president and CEO of Holiday World & Splashin' Safari.

Dan and his mom reminisce a bit and talk about the future of the park.

It's so fun when park guests tap their toes, bop their heads or even sing along to our musical shows. These young ladies enjoyed the Beachcombers so much, they just had to get up and dance.

The Beachcombers perform daily (except Wednesdays) in Splashin' Safari.

Our friends Jeff and Diana out on the west coast keep in touch with us, with updates about their and-baby-makes-three little guy, Simon.

Here he is, sporting a very handsome look.

 

After oo-ing and ah-ing for a moment, I noticed something else.

Jeff is the mad scientist who created CoasterBuzz, one of the top online communities for the coaster crazies to happily geek out together.

Jeff started CoasterBuzz a decade ago, long before little Simon was around.

And yet look at the logo for CoasterBuzz...there's something familiar about it, don't you think?

Karen has worked here since she was a teen.

She was one of Will's favorites: cheerful, hard-working, quick with a witty comeback. She's now a married mom of two, and our administrative assistant.

With Will's passing, Karen was asked to piece together photos and video clips to help tell Will's story.

Here's a clip with photos of Will in the park, video of him playing bass guitar with the Beachcombers, plus a bit of a sweet interview Will's middle child, Leah, conducted with Will a few years ago, asking questions you'd posted here on the HoliBlog.

That bit about Karen being one of Will's favorites? Come to think of it, our boss and dear friend had a way about him that made us all feel like we were special to him.

...as he was to all of us.

You decide.

Thanks to Chris for permission to use this photo, which was taken June 5.

I'm sifting through some old emails to save the ones from Will that made me laugh.

It's almost every last one of them.

His sense of humor kept our mood buoyant and his easy, infectious (okay, goofy!) laugh was downright inspirational.

Something he said pretty regularly: "If we can't have fun, who can? We're a theme park, for goodness sake!"

Who could be grumpy around that sort of logic?

I'd email or call Will a dozen times a day just to share silliness. Sometimes it was a delicious pun, other times a bit of irony I knew he'd appreciate. We never made fun of others, we just delighted in the simple typos of life.

All week, I've instinctively grabbed my phone to call Will. One time was to chuckle about a sweet email sent to us that said we were all such good people, indeed we were all angles. I can just hear Will wanting to know if he could be an obtuse angle ... of course, I would want to be an acute angle.

Here's another example: A guest wrote in asking about something she'd heard in the park and found hard to believe -- that children actually "shrink" during the day as they ride rides.

Sounded pretty far-fetched, but I sent it to Will just in case it was something I'd missed in physics class way-back-when.

His reply: I think it has something to do with foreshortening of length due to travel at relativistic (approaching light speed) speeds. The good news is that there’s also a time dilation effect—kids who spend a day here traveling at near light speed actually age less than if they were sitting at home stationary on their couch. In all seriousness, I can’t imagine where this came from!

The good folks at Amusement Today sent us this photo of Will from a few years back. It's one of the many times he was awarded a Golden Ticket for the Cleanest Park in the World.

It's been a tough week for us all. Someone we loved dearly was taken from us much too soon. But as we've clung together in our grief, smiles and laughter have broken through as we remember this wonderful man and all he gave us, never expecting anything in return.

Rest in peace, Will Koch.