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, and also was chief experience officer (CXO) of Brazilian conglomerate Grupo Wágner from 2009-2015, as well as the founder & CEO of two separate companies, eMagic LLC and American Telephone Entertainment Services Inc.

Life and career
Christopher was born in. His mother was of Indian descent and his father was of English and Norwegian descent.

He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1964, he met his wife, Hiroko Carwardine (Formerly Hiroko Hashimoto) in technology class. They married shortly after their graduations and moved to in 1965, before moving to  in 1971 to establish a central office for his real-estate business.

Christopher was a major real-estate agent in Pennsylvania, 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.

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 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.

In 2009, he became the CXO of Grupo Wagner.

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

In 2016, Christopher retired from Carwardine Parks due to his struggle with Pancreatic cancer. He named Wayne Carwardine II as the new CEO of Carwardine Parks.

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. He is buried at in Newport News.

Trivia

 * In 1986, He lost his glasses at Carwardine Colony, they were found in 2011.
 * 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.