Christopher R. Carwardine

Christopher Roger Carwardine (October 2, 1937 - April 16, 2020) was an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was the founder and long-time CEO of Carwardine Parks, as well as the founder & CEO of two separate companies, eMagic LLC and American Telephone Entertainment Services Inc.

Early life
Christopher Roger Carwardine was born on October 2, 1937 in, a small town between and. His mother was of Indian descent and his father was of English and Norwegian descent. Raised during the final years of the and during World War II, Carwardine grew up in an often-penniless family. He dropped twice out of school to support his family with various jobs in factories, on farms and in grocery stores.

He studied at, where he met his future wife Hiroko (neé Hashimoto) in technology class. They married shortly after graduating in 1964 and moved to in 1965, before moving to  in 1971 to establish a central office for his real-estate business.

Carwardine was a major real-estate agent in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Virginia, best known with his advertising slogan "Chris Carwardine will sell it!", and also known for entertaining visitors to open houses with his comedic stylings. By 1974, Carwardine was saturating the commercial breaks during the overnight hours on television stations throughout the areas in Pennsylvania, New York and the Virginias he served, with those stations agreeing with Carwardine to fill their overnight schedules by playing all-night marathons of movies, of which Carwardine would serve as the exclusive sponsor of, with his commercials being the only ones played during ad breaks.

Career
In 1978, he bought a disused landfill in and cleared the site to begin the construction of Carwardine Colony, which took 2 years to build on that very site. It opened in 1980, and was described by Coasters as "America's Best New Theme Park of 1980".

In 1986, Christopher founded American Telephone Entertainment Services Inc., incorporated in and headquartered in, to operate 1-900 numbers.

In 1992, he founded Dept. 2 Productions.

In 1995, he sold his many companies to other companies, including DreamWorks and Berkshire Hathaway.

In 1996, he headlined "Project Carwardine Superhighway", which would transfer several Carwardine services to the Internet. This also led to the foundation of Carwardine Forums.

In 1998, he helped mastermind Mills Corporation's acquisition of DreamWorks' stake in Carwardine Parks.

By 2015, he retired from some of his roles, including his role as the presenter of the Carwardine queue tapes due to his old age.

Health struggles and death
On May 2, 2016, Christopher announced his retirement from Carwardine Parks due to his struggle with Pancreatic cancer. He named Wayne Carwardine II as the new CEO of Carwardine Parks. He still continued to make appearances in the Carwardine Colony Instant Commercials and Carwardine Colony Fun Reports uploaded to the park's YouTube account for a time.

Knowing he would die soon, he made his last public appearance in February 2020 at Carwardine Colony.

Christopher died peacefully on April 16, 2020 at his home in. He was given a state funeral in Richmond at the, which was held behind closed doors due to the then-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. His pallbearers wore his signature barbershop outfit. He is buried at in Newport News.

Trivia

 * Christopher was an avid bowler, and as a result there is a bowling alley located in a bunker underneath the Sky Whirl attraction, in a similar fashion to the basketball court inside the Matterhorn.
 * Christopher took up horse riding in 1983, a hobby several of his family members and co-workers also have taken up. His first horse was a purebred Arabian mare named Elmira, who was often featured in Carwardine Colony parades.
 * Christopher had a long-time interest in fencing, having fenced épée in college.
 * Chris lost his glasses in 1986 while at Carwardine Colony; it wouldn't be until 25 years later in 2011 that they were found.
 * The glasses were sold on eBay for $37,000 by one of the employees of Carwardine Colony that was a part of Carwardine Capsule excavation.
 * A memorial plaque was erected at Carwardine Colony on the site of the Carwardine Capsule in February 2021 and was unveiled when the park reopened in March.
 * Christopher is regarded as a great benefactor in the state of Virginia, including paving over notoriously pothole-ridden roads, building schools & hospitals in rural areas, and making donations to hundreds of charities and Virginia PBS member stations. He also made charitable donations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
 * He was often called "Mr. Carwardine", "CRC" or "Lord Carwardine" by his employees.
 * The "CRC" nickname has also been adopted by fans in the early 2000s, with fans during his appearances in the parks shouting "CRC! CRC! CRC!"
 * He was an owner of a few Chuck E. Cheese's animatronics that he had in a private collection. The animatronics were relocated to be retrofitted for Jeepers stores.
 * He was a Chuck E. Cheese's franchiser, currently, his franchises are owned by Alex Carwardine.
 * The Crazy Chris' Wild Ride roller coaster at Carwardine Corners was named after him.
 * As he was a Lutheran Christian for much of his life, he was part of the of the  (ELCA). He organized community events at Virginia Synod congregations throughout the  area and the  region for much of his life.
 * He was left-handed, and often signed autographs with his left hand, and preferred to sit on the left side of a roller coaster's train. This explains why the bowling alley in the breakroom at Carwardine Colony is mirrored compared to most bowling alleys.
 * His most iconic clothes were a full barbershop outfit made c. 1974 by Dixie Clothing & Textiles in XL size and outsourced to Korea, hence the Made in Korea tag on the back of the vest.
 * His vest is currently preserved at the Museum of Fun.