Marty Roenigk, 68, co-owner of the 1886 Crescent Hotel and
Spa and the 1905 Basin Park Hotel in Eureka Springs, was killed Thursday
night in a two-vehicle accident in southeast Iowa near the community of
Griswold. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Roenigk's wife, Elise, 68, was injured in the accident and is recovering from a severely broken arm in Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., where she was air-lifted, according to a spokesman for the hotels.
Sgt. Patrick McGinn, of the Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Office, reported that Elise Roenigk was the driver of the van, which collided with a pickup truck carrying two adults and two grandchildren from Souix Falls, S.D. The adults, Robert Wolf, 72 and his granddaughter, Chelsea Nicholus, 16, were air-lifted to Creighton, while Wolf's wife, Betty, 71, and grandchild Kinze Nicholus, 12, were taken by ambulance to a Red Oak, Iowa hospital.
The accident occurred at 8:42 p.m., according to Sgt. McGinn, who said the preliminary investigation showed that the south-bound Roenigk van ran a stop sign at the intersection of a rural road and Iowa Hwy. 92, east of Griswold. The pickup was travelling east on Hwy. 92, according to McGinn's report.
It was reported locally that the Roenigks were on a trip
to pick up an antique mechanical music machine for the couple's collection
in the Gavioli Chapel in Eureka Springs.
Hotel owner's death 'sad day' for resort town
Martin Allen Roenigk - a Eureka Springs hotelier, preservationist and
philanthropist - died Thursday in a two-vehicle collision near Griswold,
Iowa, about 30 miles east of Omaha, Neb.
His wife, Elise Roenigk (pronounced "Rennick"), 68, was driving the couple's 2006 Ford van when the collision occurred about 8:40 p.m.
According to a preliminary report by Sgt. Patrick McGinn of the Pottawattamie County sheriff's office, the southbound van ran a stop sign at the intersection of 500th Street and Iowa 92. The van was struck by a 1999 Ford F350 pickup eastbound on Iowa 92. The driver of the truck, Robert Wolf, 72, of Sioux Falls, S.D., and three passengers were injured.
The Omaha World-Herald reported the impact rolled the van onto its roof, and the Roenigks were trapped inside.
Marty Roenigk was pronounced dead at the scene. Elise Roenigk suffered a broken arm and was taken by helicopter to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, where she remained Friday.
"She has a pretty seriously broken arm and will have surgery on Monday," said Jack Moyer, vice president of operations and development for the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa and 1905 Basin Park Hotel, both in Eureka Springs. "And she is just distraught."
Their Irish setter Aine also died in the crash.
In 1997, Marty and Elise Roenigk purchased the Crescent and the Basin Park hotels. They also owned War Eagle Mill, a historic mill and restaurant near Rogers. The couple lived in the Crescent. Bill Ott, a spokesman for the hotels, said Marty Roenigk was about 68.
Moyer said the Roenigks left Eureka Springs on Thursday and drove to Iowa either to go to a mechanical musical instrument show or to pick up an instrument. They were due back in Eureka Springs today.
The Roenigks owned Mechantiques.com, billed on its Web site as the country's largest dealer of mechanical musical instruments. The company buys, sells and trades disk- or cylinder-type music boxes, musical clocks, coin-operated pianos and several other kinds of mechanical musical instruments.
Moyer said Marty Roenigk's three main loves were his wife, historic preservation and mechanical musical instruments.
Moyer said Roenigk saved the historic Crescent Hotel.
"It was a disaster, an unmitigated disaster," he said. "It should have been closed. If it wasn't for Marty and his preservationist's heart, it wouldn't have been restored."
Moyer said Marty Roenigk invested more than $10 million restoring the two hotels in Eureka Springs. He originally paid about one dollar million for the Basin Park Hotel and $1.35 million for the Crescent.
"Mr. Roenigk has never taken $1 out of these hotels, no salary, nothing," Moyer said.
The Roenigks moved to Eureka Springs from Hartford, Conn., in 1997 when they decided to buy the Basin Park. They purchased that hotel in February and the Crescent in May of that year.
"It's a tremendous blow, obviously," said Charles Cross, president and chief executive of Cornerstone Bank in Eureka Springs. "They were highly respected people in town. They were both a breath of fresh air. They're non-assuming people, real approachable people. They were a major contributor to Eureka Springs.
"It's hard to come in to a small town as an outsider and endear yourself to people. The way they cared about this town's well-being, I think that captured people's respect immediately. ... This is a sad day for Eureka Springs, that's for sure."
Marty Roenigk grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1965 he received a bachelor of arts degree from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and married the former Elise Feutz. He earned a master's in business administration in 1967 from the University of Chicago. He worked for Arthur Andersen & Co. in Cleveland in the late 1960s while becoming a certified public accountant.
Roenigk then served a stint with the U.S. Army in Vietnam. After that, he spent the next 23 years working for the Travelers Corp. in Hartford, Conn., where he became vice president for corporate strategy and research.
In 1990, while he was still with Travelers, he and a friend, Alan Markowitz, bought a small company that manufactured pneumatic hand tools.
In 1993, Travelers was sold to Primerica (which is now the Travelers Cos.), and Marty Roenigk left the company.
In 1995, Roenigk and Markowitz bought CompuDyne Corp., a security company, and Roenigk became chairman and chief executive. CompuDyne had a net loss of $142,000 for the six months prior to the acquisition and was on the verge of bankruptcy.
CompuDyne acquired several other companies, and by 2006 had gross revenue of $147.5 million. A group of private-equity investors bought CompuDyne from Roenigk and Markowitz in 2007 for $59 million. By then, the Annapolis, Md.-based CompuDyne was providing blast-resistant doors and windows for U.S. embassies and federal buildings.
In Arkansas, Marty Roenigk's preservation work went beyond historic hotels. In 2005, he sold 1,226 acres in Newton County to The Nature Conservancy at a huge discount. Valued at $1.2 million, Roenigk sold the property at the headwaters of the Buffalo River for $400,000. The Acres for America program, a partnership between Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, paid the remaining $400,000 for the property, which is now the Smith Creek Nature Preserve.
"He bought it specifically to put it into conservation," said Tim Snell, associate state director with The Nature Conservancy. "The property that he donated has a threemile cave underneath it. It's the largest winter cave for the Indiana bat, a federal endangered species. It's our largest Ozarks preserve."
d on fire doors. Malcolm started coming to AMICA Conventions in
the 80's and got a back injury on one of his trips to America. This has
prevented him from coming to later conventions. He was recently at a
PPG Meeting in England when he was uncomfortable sitting and had to stand
for the entire evening. Peter has said that time for Malcolm is "of a
premium". Those who might remember Malcolm might send him an email at
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