They're having a party in Sandusky tonight in honor of John Hildebrandt, the retiring general manager at Cedar Point. I wanted more than anything to make it up there, but I couldn't really make it happen at a reasonable cost.
John's history with CP is well documented elsewhere, but the short version is that it encompasses almost his entire professional career. That almost never happens anymore. For the last eight years or so he has been the general manager at the park, coming up through marketing.
I met him in 1998, I think, but in some way he had an impact on my summers growing up on the North Coast for most of my life. And if you think about it, he had some effect on the summers of millions of people over his tenure. How many people can say they've had a career that involved that?
I never worked for John directly (though I did some contract work for the park at various points), so I can't really speak to whether or not he was a good boss, but most people speak highly of him, even if they didn't necessarily agree with every decision he ever made. People on the outside, as guests have even higher praise for him. I can definitely attest to that as well. He always made time to talk to me. He did me favors, like showing some Seattle friends of mine around. After some suboptimal experiences in the accommodations, he even gave me his cell phone number to call him directly in the case of any further issues. As a guest, he was always world class to me.
And if I'm being honest, he certainly didn't have to be. We know each other today because of PointBuzz, which was Guide to The Point before that. Imagine 1998, when the Internet was still a bit of a wild west situation, and this unofficial site appears with a growing community talking about your product, unfiltered and (relatively) uncensored. John was running marketing at the time, and that new territory was all his. Our relationship was always interesting in that sense, because I was stuck between the site visitors and the park's way of doing business.
After a few years of weirdness though, I always felt welcome by John and his marketing team. That continued when he was GM as well. Let's just say we have an extensive collection of lanyards for various events!
Sure, technically, Cedar Fair owns Cedar Point, but no one really owns it in the long run. I think they just care for it on their watch. John was an ideal steward for the park. As he put it, people have a very strong emotional bond with the place, and you have to respect that.
Even though we moved (again), I'm sure we'll make it back to the park at least once a year. But it will be weird to go there and not see John walking the midways. He's just as much a part of Cedar Point to me as any of the rides there. But you never know... I may just see him here in Florida!
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