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Ralph Stricker dies


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STRICKER, Ralph J.

STRICKER Ralph, owner of Stricker's Grove Amusement Park in Ross, Ohio passed away on Friday, January 12, 2007 after a long illness.

He was 79 years old. A man of vision and philanthropy, he was born in Mt. Healthy, Ohio to Clara Link and Henry J. Stricker. He had two brothers, Elmer and the late Harold Stricker. Ralph attended Assumption Grade School and graduated from Mt. Healthy High School in 1946. In high school, he ran the projection machine and repaired typewriters. After graduation, he built upscale homes in the Mt. Healthy area. In 1954, Ralph was employed by Procter & Gamble and attended O.M.I. to become a licensed Stationary Engineer. He continued to work at Procter & Gamble until his retirement in 1990. In 1955, Ralph married Nancy Reynolds and from this union, they have two daughters; Debbie Stricker Ziegler and Nancy Stricker. He built his own home and worked at the original Stricker's Grove in Mt. Healthy in his spare time. In 1969, Ralph bought twenty-five acres on Route 128 in Ross, Ohio and relocated the present Stricker's Grove to its current location. Ralph built two roller coasters (The Tornado and The Teddy Bear) and has the distinction of being the only private individual in the United States to build his own coasters. The best quote from Ralph, "I don't ride them, I just build them". For the park, he also built other rides, generators, banquet hall, shelters and numerous other endeavors. He was honored by Cincinnati Magazine as an "Annual Best". He was recognized in the Ohio Magazine for higher safety standards for the outdoor amusement industry. In addition, he was featured in articles in The Ohio Oddities Book and the Amusement Parks of Greater Cincinnati Book. He was also honored on "Our Town" on Channel 9. Ralph has hosted picnics for orphanages, schools and over the years has helped numerous people who are in need. He also hosted picnics for Procter & Gamble retirees as well as his Mt. Healthy High School reunion for many years at Stricker's Grove. He was recognized and honored by Mt. Healthy High School as "Alumni of the Year, Class of 1946". Ralph was known to be a very kind, quiet, soft spoken individual who was modest about his accomplishments. He was mild tempered and always conducted business with just a handshake and a smile. Ralph also loved to tell jokes and had a very dry sense of humor. He took great pride in showing off his amusement park and could be seen there everyday. He particularly loved his roller coasters and listening to the music of his carrousel. He just wanted people to come, enjoy the park and have a good time. He said Stricker's Grove was his "hobby." Anyone who knew Ralph was aware how much he loved his park. It was his life. Ralph was "Stricker's Grove". Survivors include his wife, Nancy (nee Reynolds) Stricker, daughters Deborah (Ken) Ziegler, Nancy Lee (Boo) Stricker and dear brother Elmer (Agnes) Stricker. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Vitas Hospice Care, 11500 North Lake Drive, Suite 400, Cincinnati, OH 45249 or Church of the Assumption Building Fund.

Visitation will be Wednesday evening, January 17, 2007 from 4:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. at Stricker's Grove Hall located on State Route #128 in Ross, Ohio. Mass will be held on Thursday, January 18, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. at Church of the Assumption, 7711 Joseph Street, Mt. Healthy, OH. Burial at St. Mary's Cemetery in St. Bernard, OH. NEIDHARD GILLEN FUNERAL HOME, entrusted with arrangements. Condolences to www.neidhardgillenfuneralhome.com

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Strickers Grove is truly a very cool place. Its not a large theme park with multi million dollar rides, in fact its even smaller than Americana, but its truly a fun place. The coasters are great and the flying scooters are the best around (now that ours are gone). He will be missed and I'm sure his family will keep the park open.

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Did Ralph just never want to expand the park at all? I mean from the looks of it there is a pretty good sized corn field right across the park you could put a few major rides on.

Stickers Grove is a really nice place to ride some of the old carnie rides and nothing like the old eli ferris wheel.

I never asked about the park itself, but I have been there numerous times, years ago, but nothing to recently. From what I remember about the area, those cornfields used to be used all the time. It was someone's farm. I imagine they are still in use and i doubt the owner wants to sell his land, which would be less crop. I can't imagine he didn't want to expand, but he was fine with the park the way it was, small, nice, family oriented, and didn't feel a need to take over another families livelihood. That's just one man's opinion though.

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  • 2 weeks later...

RIP Ralph

I love strickers grove, it's like going into the past into an old time amusement park, when many towns had their own little parks.

Hey if Strickers Grove can put up a nice wooden coaster like the tornado, then why in the world can't coney island???????

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One of the major reasons that Kings Island was built was to escape the flooding on the Ohio River that Coney Island is subject to. A wood coaster would be subject to the same flooding that ravaged the Shooting Star from time to time. In 1937, the entire park was virtually gutted by the flooding. It is unlikely, given the Corps of Engineers flood control dams on the tributaries, that a flood of 1937 proportions will repeat, but even the flooding experienced from time to time now poses substantial problems to Coney Island. The park deals with it well, but I doubt you see a wood coaster there any time soon.

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One of the major reasons that Kings Island was built was to escape the flooding on the Ohio River that Coney Island is subject to. A wood coaster would be subject to the same flooding that ravaged the Shooting Star from time to time. In 1937, the entire park was virtually gutted by the flooding. It is unlikely, given the Corps of Engineers flood control dams on the tributaries, that a flood of 1937 proportions will repeat, but even the flooding experienced from time to time now poses substantial problems to Coney Island. The park deals with it well, but I doubt you see a wood coaster there any time soon.

Too bad, a nice little coaster, would make all the difference there, nothing beast like or anything, just something, and that python thing is horrible, the car is so small everytime i try to ride it my knees feel like they need surgery after.

However an occasional trip to coney island is neccessary to ride the tempest, that thing rocks if you get it going good.

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One of the major reasons that Kings Island was built was to escape the flooding on the Ohio River that Coney Island is subject to. A wood coaster would be subject to the same flooding that ravaged the Shooting Star from time to time. In 1937, the entire park was virtually gutted by the flooding. It is unlikely, given the Corps of Engineers flood control dams on the tributaries, that a flood of 1937 proportions will repeat, but even the flooding experienced from time to time now poses substantial problems to Coney Island. The park deals with it well, but I doubt you see a wood coaster there any time soon.

Too bad, a nice little coaster, would make all the difference there, nothing beast like or anything, just something, and that python thing is horrible, the car is so small everytime i try to ride it my knees feel like they need surgery after.

However an occasional trip to coney island is neccessary to ride the tempest, that thing rocks if you get it going good.

would be fun to ride that coaster with a swim suit :D

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  • 5 weeks later...

Strange request but...

Does anybody have any good information or pictures (especially of the structure) of the coaster Teddy Bear at Strickers Grover? I've been looking high and low on the internet, and I think I've come to an end of how much info I can find for the ride.

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^I hadn't found the first one, but I had found the other two. Negative-G had some really good photos on their sit as wel. I even found a good POV on youtube. I can't find it now, but there was a site talking about that it had only top running wheels on the track, and nothing underneath, but I think that other pictures show that to be untrue. Thanks for the help!

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Yes. They fit in the thread when we were discussing the differences in flooding at Kings Island, Coney Island and Stricker's Grove...

They are also clearly labelled as such...

(Raptor had pointed out that Stricker's has wood coasters, and then asked why doesn't Coney Island? The pictures clearly show at least one reason why...)

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"Bedevere: Quiet, quiet, quiet, QUIETA There are ways of *telling* whether she

is a witch!

Villagers: Are there? What? Tell us, then! Tell us!

Bedevere: Tell me. What do you do with witches?

V: BUUUURN!!!!! BUUUUUURRRRNN!!!!! You BURN them!!!! BURN!!

Bedevere: And what do you burn apart from witches?

Villager: More Witches!

Other Villager: Wood.

Bedevere: So. Why do witches burn?

(long silence)

(shuffling of feet by the villagers)

Villager: (tentatively) Because they're made of.....wood?

Bedevere: Goooood!

Other Villagers: oh yeah... oh....

Bedevere: So. How do we tell whether she is made of wood?

One Villager: Build a bridge out of 'er!

Bedevere: Aah. But can you not also make bridges out of stone?

Villagers: oh yeah. oh. umm...

Bedevere: Does wood sink in water?

One Villager: No! No, no, it floats!

Other Villager: Throw her into the pond!" -Monty Python and the Holy Grail

You see, by showing that Coney Island has no wood coasters, we can clearly point out one thing. The wood of the coaster would get wet, cleary proving that wood coasters at Coney are infact, witches. Thus, why Coney has no wood coasters.

Oh, and eh, does anyone have any pictures of their own of the Teddy Bear and would be willing to email them to me?

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