Penn College graduate helps design thrills

One of a dozen full-time employees at GCII, Rush designs and redesigns parts for the three types of coaster trains the company makes: millennium flyer for twisty track configurations, mini-llennium flyer for junior coasters and the infinity flyer for coasters with extreme elements. He also devises parts for coasters’ mechanical systems. (A separate company, Skyline Attractions LLC, usually designs the coasters that GCII builds.)

Project management, train construction and parts production for ride structures occur at the Sunbury location before GCII coasters are erected at amusement parks. Occasionally, Rush travels to the parks. He recently spent several days at Morey’s Piers in Wildwood, New Jersey, working on the lift hill of the Great White coaster so he could learn proper installation procedures for the ride’s mechanical aspects.

He also has visited Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri, for the second-season opening of the Zambezi Zinger coaster, featuring GCII’s Titan Track, which merges wood and steel elements.

“It was nice seeing how excited the public was to ride it,” Rush said. “It gives you a whole new perspective being able to go to a park and seeing people enjoy a coaster that you helped on.”

The Elysburg native grew up in the shadow of one of the country’s most famous wooden roller coasters: the Phoenix at Knoebels Amusement Resort. It was the first “big” coaster he rode. The Phoenix is a multiple Golden Ticket award-winner for best wooden coaster and has been recognized as an American Coaster Enthusiasts roller coaster landmark, a designation reserved for rides of historical significance.

One ride on the Phoenix and Rush was smitten for life.

“I enjoy the adrenaline rush coasters give you, as well as seeing the limits pushed each year as new record-breaking coasters get designed and built. Seeing the inner mechanisms of how they work has always interested me,” he explained.

Rush has experienced the Phoenix countless times as a park guest and employee. During his teenage years, he worked as a waiter at Knoebels’ Alamo Restaurant. Proximity to the amusement industry made him aspire to a career in the field. It was also during this time that Rush became intrigued with design.

His middle school required students to take a drafting class. “I found myself enjoying the projects we were working on and excelling at what I was doing,” Rush said.

In high school, he acted on that interest. Rush completed several drafting courses, which steered him to seek a college offering a degree incorporating his favorite type of computer-aided design: 3D parametric modeling.