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Volume 1, No. 6. April 20, 2001

Photographs and memories

When Al Turner arrived in Boise, Idaho, one Saturday to visit Roaring Springs Water Park last year, "It was raining, miserable weather," remembers the park’s General Manager Lee Hovis. "And the forecast for Sunday was for clouds and bad weather all day." But Sunday morning, Turner, the president and chief executive officer of the World Waterpark Association, headed to the park to take pictures anyway. "Miraculously, the weather changed. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky," Hovis said.

Good thing: Al would have waited until the sun came out, however long that took. "He’d go out of his way, time-wise and mileage-wise, to get a good picture," said Wally James of Con-Serv Associates in Atlanta.

Optimism and dedication were just two of the personality traits that Turner used to build the WWA into a global industry force, a mission he doggedly pursued up to the day of his death from amyloidosis April 5.

"The reason a lot of us are successful in the waterpark industry is because of Al," said Greg Mastriona, executive director of Hyland Hills waterpark near Denver, Colorado. "He was able to bring a lot of elements into the association, small parks, large parks, privately owned parks and publicly owned parks, and he pulled all that knowledge together to make us all better."

Owners of a Kansas City, Missouri, insurance agency, Turner and his University of Oklahoma fraternity brother Dave Bruschi formed the American Waterslide Association in 1980 to provide operators in the Midwest affordable insurance. Soon he was tirelessly leading an organization dedicated to promoting the whole waterpark sector while improving operations and standards within the industry.

"He would always go out of his way to go wherever we would invite him," said Suzanne Melas, marketing director of Waterworld Waterpark in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, and a board member of the European Waterpark Association. "We met in Australia, we met in Dubai, we met in Cyprus, we met in Austria, and we met in San Antonio. Everywhere he went or wherever he made his presentation, he talked about this extended waterpark family."

"He would fly to the smallest little town for a little waterpark that might have a couple slides here and there, and maybe a kiddie activity pool, and then fly off to Wet ‘n’ Wild in Orlando and talk to them," said Hovis. "He was completely unbiased."

But he was not without strong opinions. "One thing I valued about Al: if I was wrong, he’d tell me so, and if I wasn’t wrong he stood by me all the way," James said. Despite a disposition that appeared as if nothing ever bothered him, Turner never backed down from threats to the industry or WWA. When water quality became a media lightning rod three years ago, the WWA quickly moved out front in the public discussion, a brave and necessary stance for an association that wants to wear the leadership mantle.

"He would push the board and push me as safety committee chair to get to the bottom of the problem if that needed to be done, or gather information and data if that needed to be done," James said. "Every challenge to the industry he felt needed to be answered, and if it couldn’t be answered, it was a problem that needed to be solved."

Leader, promoter, photographer, wine connoisseur: Al Turner will be long remembered for these qualities, and one other above all else. "He just wanted to make friends wherever he went and do everything for the industry," Melas said. "He was a great friend."

"He was a great friend," Mastriona said. "When he said he’d do something, he would do it."

"He was definitely a good friend," Hovis said.

Said James: "He is the father of the industry."

For the official announcement from WWA and information on the memorial service this weekend, please see the Bulletin Board.

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