originally posted on 6/17/2022
Photo: Joel Brewton-Riling. View full-sized image.
In the summer of 1978, a handful of individuals was instrumental in shaping the American Coaster Enthusiasts. Beside the club founders, that group included the likes of Mike Danshaw, Clarence Hintze, Allen Ambrosini, Frank Czuri, Joe Barna, Jeffrey Lottmann, Mike Boodley, Gary Kyriazi, John Waldrop, John Carruthers, Lee Bush and Robert Cartmell. While the small group was passionate about forming a club for roller coaster enthusiasts, one in particular was Charles J. Jacques, who was critical to setting up the nonprofit status that the organization enjoys to this day. Sadly Charles passed away on May 10, 2022, from a long illness related to Parkinson’s disease, in Saybrook, Ohio. He was 82. He joins an elite group of club members who have passed away and may otherwise be forgotten, although they all made their mark on the club’s beginnings.
Charles Jacques is seen at Coaster Con I in 1978.
Photo: Richard Munch. View full-sized image.
Charlie, as most members called him, was a Pittsburgh attorney, and after attending the first convention at Busch Gardens The Old Country, in Williamsburg, Virginia, offered his services to complete the paperwork necessary to gain nonprofit status. His efforts were critical to getting the growing club organized and moving forward. As luck would have it, the first two meetings during that first year were held in Pennsylvania. The original group had its first meeting in Zelienople, just north of Pittsburgh, during which those present all had a chance to visit the closed West View Park grounds for the LIFE Magazine photoshoot. This offered an amazing opportunity to promote the new club, while the two days of meetings were essential to the founding of the club. The second meeting of the new Executive Committee was held at the Jacques family summer home in Butler, again north of Pittsburgh.
Jacques was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 23, 1940. Growing up in Natrona Heights, a suburb of Pittsburgh, he graduated from Penn State University in 1962 with degrees in history and education. Completing his studies, he received a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh's law school and was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1965, joining his father’s law firm, Jacques and Jacques. While at Penn State, Jacques was involved in many student groups and activities, as well as the Camera Club. During the summer, the family traveled annually to Wildwood, New Jersey, enjoying the ocean resort and local amusements. It was during this time that his interest grew in research and photography.
With respect to his early interest in amusement parks, he traced his fascination to his childhood visits to Waldameer Park, in Erie, Pennsylvania, in the late 1940s. Although most of his curiosity was focused on the amusement parks he cherished, particularly Kennywood, West View and Waldameer parks, he traveled extensively, visiting most of the amusement parks in North America. He also admitted that in 1975 he became interested in writing about amusement parks, although there were few books that existed on the subject. While he enjoyed both The Great American Amusement Park (Kyriazi) and Euclid Beach Park Is Closed for the Season (Bush, Hershey, et al), he still felt the industry had not received the attention it required and quickly dove into what he called “virgin territory.”
In 1979 he began printing Amusement Park Journal, which covered his love of roller coasters and carousels. The publication lasted eight years. During a newspaper interview, he said that “perhaps I have spent the past quarter-century trying to tell the world how great the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feels of my earliest amusement park experiences at Waldameer were.” Many believe he was successful.
For his first book, he focused on the local favorite, Kennywood Park. Released in 1982, Kennywood: Roller Coaster Capital of the World was the first hardcover book documenting the unique history of that great American institution. Other books followed, including Goodbye, West View Park, Goodbye (1984), Hersheypark: The Sweetness of Success (1997), More Kennywood Memories (1998) and Cincinnati’s Coney Island (2002). He also worked with the late Rick Shale on Idora Park: The Last Ride of Summer (1999).
Among his many accolades, he served as the president of the National Carousel Association, and particularly enjoyed being a part of the WQED-TV “Kennywood Memories” video with local celebrity Rick Sebak in the 1980s. Brian Butko of the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh said that his fun and quirky personality best shone through in Sebak’s programs because Jacques was a great storyteller. Naturally, he wrote extensively for his own publications as well as for several clubs at the time.
Charlie made the news in 1990 when he commented on the ongoing Dorney Park lawsuit with Six Flags Over Texas, regarding the latter park’s claim that its Texas Giant was taller than Dorney’s new Hercules. He suggested that in general, parks had verbally sparred in the past over who has the longest, the biggest, the highest coaster. He even implied that some parks had lied through the years.
While he wouldn’t weigh in on which park he thought had the taller ride, he was taken with the fact that a park would resort to a lawsuit over such an issue. He wondered if it were a publicity stunt and recalled that lawyers typically had been involved in copyright cases, in which one amusement park or manufacturer claimed another stole an idea. But he went on to say, "I don't remember anybody ever directly suing anyone else just over the claim of what's taller. And I've done a lot of studying over the last few years on this subject."
Jacques met his second wife at the National Carousel convention in Denver in 1994. Betty VanPelt recounted that on return to her home in Ohio, Charlie showed up the following day at her front door. She laughed and knew that Charlie was serious about wanting to see more of her. They were married shortly thereafter, and Charlie settled down in Jefferson, Ohio, at Betty’s residence. She considered herself as Charlie’s research assistant, taking hundreds of photographs of amusement parks to assist in his research.
Regrettably, they were finding limited space at their home for a collection that was growing fast. They began to transfer items to his alma mater, Penn State, in 1998, so that an “important part of American history that has been too long overlooked would be preserved,” Jacques admitted. The Charles and Betty Jacques amusement park collection would include many of the rare or unique finds he acquired during research for his books, such as information on ride manufacturers. In another newspaper interview, Jacques said, “One of the things that I’ve enjoyed since I first got into this is that archival material from amusement parks is very visually stimulating compared to what you find from a lot of other history topics. There’s artwork of the rides, scenes of midways and gardens, wonderful photographs of people smiling — maybe with their hands up on a roller coaster. I always think of how lucky I am that I only have a handful of boring items and lots of exciting ones.”
At his home in Jefferson, he was involved in church activities and the community library. Besides his loving wife, Betty, he leaves three children, Lynn, Charles III and Cory, as well as two stepdaughters, Trina and Ellen. No doubt they will all miss the loving man they called Dad.
— Richard Munch, ACE cofounder and first president, who was honored that Charlie decided to use his photograph on the cover of one of his books
Charles Jacques, Dave Hahner, Rick Sebak and Brian Butko.
Photo: Joel Brewton-Riling. View full-sized image.
Charles Jacques Remembrances
I remember my first meeting with Charlie was at his law office in Natrona Heights when I was a very young new member in the early 1980s, along with two other now-deceased local members and former regional reps, Jack York and Gary Baker. He seemed a bit larger than life at first to someone such as myself, who couldn’t believe that someone else was as passionate about Kennywood and other amusement parks, even more so. He was very gracious and inviting, gladly signing my copy of his much-cherished Kennywood book and giving us several copies of Amusement Park Journal before we left. A very memorable day to be sure!
Since then, I was fortunate to meet Charlie at various events in later years, mainly at our region’s CoasterBash!, where he was often invited to present, especially after he would release a new book. Always a great storyteller, always funny with so many memories to share. Charlie even wished me well on the success of my own book on Kennywood in 2004 saying, “there’s always more stories to tell” about the venerable amusement park.
— Dave Hahner, ACE Historian
I first saw Charlie in 1980. I fondly recall his many engaging presentations at ACE events in those early years. I learned that this fascinating enthusiast had already begun producing his Amusement Park Journal in 1979 (a very classy, well-done publication — I subscribed faithfully back then). I learned he was an early member and past president of the National Carousel Association, and the 11th member of American Coaster Enthusiasts. Thus Charlie was already a heavy hitter within the beginnings of the enthusiast community, on a par, say, with the likes of celebrity enthusiasts such as Robert Cartmell or Gary Kyriazi in making a significant mark and laying his bona fides early on.
Charlie possessed a twinkle in his eye, reflecting the joy he sensed and shared with all of us because of his love for amusement parks. Over the years, Charlie earned the honor of being both beloved, but also highly respected, because he was so accomplished as a historian, book writer, passionate presenter, magazine publisher and founder of his own club. He represented the productive combination of smarts (after all he earned a bachelor’s degree in science and doctor of law degree, and he was a lawyer) and spirited passion. He got things done, did them with charisma and personality and contributed wholeheartedly, touching many, many lives.
— Randy Geisler, ACE’s third president
I met him back in the 1980s when I first joined ACE — and purchased MANY books and other things from him back then. I always enjoyed seeing him.
I remember he once told me about an incident when airport security was worried about him. He went to purchase a ticket at the last minute to go to a park, but it was sold out, so he asked for a ticket to another city that had an amusement park he wanted to visit. He didn’t care which park he was going to visit, but the airport folks wondered about someone who would buy a ticket to another, totally different city when the place he originally wanted to go was not possible.
He will be missed.
— Bill Galvin
Charles Jacques poses with Rick Sebak at CoasterBash! in 2019.
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