One week after it was announced that Gillian’s Wonderland Pier in Ocean City, New Jersey would be closing after this season, its founder, Havertown native Roy Gillian, has died, writes Amy Rosenberg for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Mr. Gillian, who was a former mayor of Ocean City, and father of the current mayor, Jay Gillian, died Saturday, Aug. 17. He was 94.  

The Wonderland Pier amusement park was a main feature of the Ocean City boardwalk and part of the Gillian family legacy.

Roy Gillian grew up in Havertown and graduated from Haverford High School in 1947.

He served in the Army from 1951 to 1953, then in 1957, he and his brother Bob took over the “Fun Deck” amusement park that had been founded by their father, David Gillian, in 1930.

In 1965, Roy Gillian left and founded Wonderland Pier at 6^th and the Boardwalk.

He also founded Gillian’s Island and Adventure Golf.

A 2019 proclamation of “Roy Gillian Day” honoring his 90^th birthday, stated Gillian had taken “the reins of an amusement park dynasty founded by his father in 1929 and turned a vacant lot at 6th and the Boardwalk into one of Ocean City’s premier attractions.”

Read more about the life of Roy Gillian in The Philadelphia Inquirer.