Bob Henry, founder of the Schlitterbahn chain of waterparks and resorts, passed away Oct. 31. He was 89.

Schlitterbahn shared the news Tuesday on Facebook, saying the devoted family man, affectionately known as "Mr. Bob," will be greatly missed.

“Mr. Bob was a brilliant businessman as well as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather. When he and Billye came to New Braunfels 50 years ago, he hoped to have a business where the whole family could work together. It was a dream that was the foundation of Schlitterbahn,” the post read.

Henry was an accountant by trade but had long dreamed of starting his own business -- something along the lines of a summer camp for children. In 1966, he and his wife, Billye, spotted an advertisement for a prime piece of real estate with several cabins along the Comal River in New Braunfels, some 170 miles west of their Houston home. They loaded the kids into the station wagon, scoped out the property and bought it two weeks later.

It was the river that sold Henry on it.

"He looked at it and said, 'We can have fun with this,' " recalled his son, Gary Henry, president of Waterpark Management, Inc., which operates the original location.

In 1968, Henry built a body slide and an innertube chute, beginning a fascination with waterplay that would spur many more additions and expansions for years to come.

Developing the park was truly a family affair with siblings Gary, Jeff and Jana all pitching in to build new attractions. (All three would go on to have high-profile roles in the company.) Back then, the waterpark industry was very much in its infancy. There were no waterslide suppliers, so Henry had to make all his own waterslide molds.


By 1979, after erecting Schlitterbahn's iconic castle-like structure with its four-speed slides, the family had settled into a routine: Build in the off season, operate in the summer.

The name Schlitterbahn is German, roughly meaning “slippery road.”

The Schlitterbahn brand flourished, partly due to Henry’s youngest son, Jeff, who is credited for pioneering groundbreaking technologies in the waterpark industry. These include the Master Blaster, an uphill watercoaster, and the Transportainment river system, a continuous loop that connects guests to various waterfeatures throughout the park. These and other innovations and envelope-pushing designs have earned the company many industry awards, as well as national recognition.

Though Henry retired in 1989, handing the books over to Gary, the eldest, he remained active in the family business as it continued to grow. Locations in South Padre Island and Galveston opened in 2001 and 2006, respectively, followed by its first waterpark resort outside of Texas in 2009 in Kansas City, Kan. The chain expanded further into the Lone Star State with a Corpus Christi addition in 2014.

Henry was proud of how far the company had come since its humble beginnings, but more proud of his family, which includes his wife of 67 years, Billye, and their three children, seven grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and seven in-laws. Many of them work for Schlitterbahn today.

“He was an amazing man” Gary said. "He led a charmed, productive life. He succeeded at virtually everything he put his mind to.

"He built a family around the business, or a business around the family," he added. "That was his joy."

This story was updated on Nov. 2 at 2:57 p.m. with comments from Gary Henry.