Those who attended IAVM regional meetings in the 80s probably remember Gary Horvath as host of the Volume Services hospitality suite and ubiquitous card game.
Those who worked with him over the years recall his skill at concessions operations, and particularly, hiring the right people, people who had a heart for hospitality like he did.
Gary L. Horvath, 77, of Aiken, S.C., passed away on Sept. 7, with his wife of 48 years, Donna, by his side.
Concessionaire and minor league baseball team owner Ken Young first met Horvath in 1976. Both worked for Volume Services, Horvath at Dane County Coliseum in Madison and Young in Kansas City. “Our career paths were similar for the first 15 years,” Young said. They both became regional vice presidents, and soon enough, presidents, with Horvath in charge of the Western half of the U.S, Young the Eastern.
Tom Marchetto, with Aramark at the time, with Gary Horvath, Ovations Food Services, Bethel, Conn., at the IAVM trade show in 2000. (Photo courtesy of Amusement Business)
Horvath later left for Service America, and Young started his own business.
The business was different back then, not nearly as mature as it is now, not as much competition. “We joined Volume Services right before they stated their mercurial rise,” Young recalled. “We picked up account after account. Vince Pantuso headed up sales and marketing and Roger Jahnel operations.”
It was also a close-knit industry, everyone got to know each other and even when competing for accounts, “we were happy for each other. If you lost an account to some upstart, we’d think, he needs the business,” Young said.
A lot of people in that industry owe their careers to Horvath, who was “tremendous with employees, mentoring and hiring. He gave people opportunities.”
When Young started Ovations Food Services with Todd Wickner, and the company immediately signed up five baseball accounts, they turned to Horvath for help. He helped them kick off business, most particularly with the Zephyrs baseball team in Metairie, outside New Orleans. “Gary knew operations as well as anyone out there,” Young recalled.
Five years later, Horvath retired at an early age, 57, and moved his family to warmer weather in South Carolina.
He began his career in amusement park concessions, noted Chris Bigelow, The Bigelow Companies, also part of the old Volume Services gang. He started his career in Sandusky, Ohio, at Cedar Point, where he worked for Interstate United Corp. IUC eventually bought Volume Services in 1974.
“As Gary always said, he couldn’t have started any lower. He was a dishwasher in the employee cafeteria. He didn’t even interact with the guests,” Bigelow said. It was a humble start for a guy who’d played football in Youngstown State University and was a sergeant in the Army.
When Horvath was promoted and sent to Kansas City, Bigelow was already there, running concessions at the ballparks and Kemper Arena. “John Lamkin was our sales guy. We were all connected,” Bigelow said of the industry back in the day.
As best he could recall, John Dee got Service America going, and Horvath left Volume to become president of Service America. Larry Hatch and Barry Frielicher ran Volume. In 1985, Canteen bought Volume Services, followed by a merger between Volume Services and Service America, which became Volume Services America.
“It was one merger after another. The joke was, ‘if my new boss calls, get his name,’” Bigelow said of the players in that day.
Besides being a constant presence at IAVM region meetings for Volume Services, Horvath also served as president of the National Association of Concessionaires, Bigelow recalled. As did Pantuso and then Bigelow.
Gary Horvath with stadium manager Larry Staverman in 1995. (Photo courtesy of Amusement Business)
“One thing I remember, Vince always had us sponsor the women’s programs at the IAAM national,” Bigelow said. “He’d say, ‘if I get to know these people through the wives, they’ll ask their husbands, ‘how come we don’t have that wonderful Volume Services guy.’” Horvath was there. All the wonderful Volume Services guys were at those spectacular luncheons for the spouses and with their own spouses. Pantuso insisted his staff bring their own wives to IAVM, citing the number of hours they were already away from home because of the job. Therefore, Bigelow got to know Donna Horvath; Horvath got to know Marsha Bigelow, etc.
Volume Services and Kreuger Seating also hosted a major hospitality suite at IAVM. That, Bigelow remembered, was a lot of work. Horvath took his turn. It was definitely a different day.
“Everybody loved Gary,” Bigelow said, continuing his litany of people who did.
Horvath was born in Sandusky, Ohio on July 16, 1946. He attended Youngstown State University on a football scholarship and was drafted into the Army as soon as he graduated. He received orders twice for Vietnam, was sent back for further training and eventually ended up being deployed to serve in Korea on the DMZ as a Sergeant. He spent his career in the concessions industry running the food services for stadiums, arenas, and convention centers nationwide.
The Horvaths moved from Bethel, Conn., to Aiken, S.C. in 2005 to get out of the cold and into the warmth. Horvath enjoyed playing golf year round.
He was preceded in death by his parents Alex and Dorothy (Toni) Horvath and brother Tim Horvath. He is survived by his loving wife Donna, son Jason Horvath (Stefanie), granddaughter Charlotte Horvath, daughter Erica Gonzalez (Wilson) and sister Candy Clark.
