Granville D. Trimper

The owner of the century-old Ocean City amusement park also served as a city councilman and county commissioner.

"He was a hardworking man who loved to get down and work on the rides. He could get bathed in grease," said Roland "Fish" Powell, a friend and former Ocean City mayor. "He was a good, local hometown boy. You knew where you stood with him. He served his town and county well."

In 1983, as council president, he brushed off a study prepared by the Maryland Coastal Zone Management office to plan for a major storm or flooding. "I don't think anything will come from the money spent on" the study, he said in remarks in The Sun. "My family's been here for a hundred years. Storms come and go, and we're still here."

Mr. Trimper was a past president of the Ocean City Lions Club and belonged to the organization for 58 years. He was also a lifetime member of the Ocean City Fire Company, past president of the Ocean City Hotel Motel Restaurant Association, president of the Ocean City Museum Society, and past president of the Downtown Association and the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce.

He served on the board of directors for Peninsula Bank and was a 32nd-degree member of the Evergreen Masonic Lodge. He also belonged to the Scottish Rite, the Boumi Temple and Ocean City Shrine Club.

Mr. Trimper was the Ocean City Citizen of the Year in 2000. This year, Gov. Martin O'Malley recognized "his lifetime of community service" in a proclamation "for his endless efforts in providing amusement and diversion for generations of Marylanders."

A funeral service will be held at noon today at St. Paul's by the Sea Episcopal Church, Third Street in Ocean City, where he was a vestryman and past senior warden.

Survivors include his wife of 17 years, the former Martha Messick; a son, John Douglas Trimper of West Ocean City; two daughters, Linda T. Holloway of West Ocean City and Stephanie T. Lewis of Snow Hill; a sister, Alice Bligh Salisbury of Raleigh, N.C.; and nine grandchildren. His first wife, Joanne Morgan Trimper, died in 1991.