Widow recalls 'Old Pro,' OC's mini-golf patriarch

As the summer season sets upon Ocean City and the flood of families once again fills the boardwalk, things seem to be business as usual. Yet, for one iconic local business, a pivotal piece is certainly missing.

Herbert J. Schoellkopf, founder of the Old Pro mini-golf courses that grace 23rd, 28th, 64th and 128th streets, passed away in the early hours of May 5 at the age of 95 and a day. Judy Schoellkopf, his wife of 25 years, recalled him fondly.

"He was the love of my life," Schoellkopf said, donning a blue t-shirt emblazoned with the Old Pro golf logo and a gold golfer silhouette pendant.

"He was my best friend, my soul mate. Everyday I would tell him I love him, and he would tell me, 'I love you everyday,' and I would tell him 'I love you evermore.' "

While Schoellkopf would make his mark on the Ocean City landscape with his mini-golf courses, the first opening on the pier in 1963 and the first permanent location opening on 23rd Street in 1965 with his late first wife Aileen, his life was one rich with travel and achievement.

"He was two years into (Guilford) College and then he wanted to go into the Army," Schoellkopf said. "He served in the Pacific during World War II, in Guam, The Philippines and Japan. He ended up becoming a captain. He came back and married his first wife and started grad school at the University of North Carolina."

It was during his graduate education that Schoellkopf would take his first steps into his lifelong mini-golf passion.

"He was coaching and teaching during the summertime when another coach asked, 'Herb, will you help me build a miniature golf course?" Schoellkopf said. "It was to raise money for the football or basketball teams, or whatever it was. That was the first time he heard what miniature golf (is). After that, he went home, and while discussing where he was going to complete his education with his parents, he borrowed money from his father to open his first golf course in Philadelphia."

Following the opening of his first course, Schoellkopf began building courses across the East Coast, at one point designing or constructing 150 courses. At the time of his passing, Schoellkopf had spent over 70 years designing, constructing and managing mini-golf courses. After opening his pier location in Ocean City in 1963, Schoellkopf began construction of his 23rd Street location.

"People told him that he was crazy," Schoellkopf said. "That no one would go that far for a mini-golf course."

Schoellkopf's construction would continue for the next 27 years, with his final location, the 68th Street prehistoric dinosaurs course, opening in 1992. Throughout his life, Schoellkopf cited the "imagineering" work of Walt Disney as his biggest inspiration.

"He thought of it as the combination of imagining of these great ideas, and then engineering them, turning them into a reality," Schoellkopf said.

A lifetime fan of the Philadelphia Eagles and Frank Sinatra, Schoellkopf spent his final birthday in a hospital bed surrounded by family, tapping his feet beneath an Eagles blanket along to "Come Fly With Me."

Despite a long series of issues that would inevitably lead to his passing, until the end, Schoellkopf kept his wit and spirit bright and sharp.

"When Herb was in the hospital, doctors would come in and ask him how he was feeling," Schoellkopf said. "And every time, he'd say 'I'm feeling Delmarvelous.'"