THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 21, 1994 TAG: 9412210265
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Chris Worrell - one of two entrepreneurial brothers who helped nudge the Oceanfront from sleepy resort to burgeoning seaside tourist mecca in the '60s - died early Tuesday after a yearlong bout with cancer.
He was 50.
Chris Worrell was the younger and more reticent of the siblings. He earned a reputation as an astute, hard-nosed businessman who made, lost and remade substantial sums on resort investments ranging from restaurants to motel and retail development.
The signature piece of his various enterprises became Worrell Brothers Restaurant and Raw Bar, an Atlantic Avenue eatery and nightspot, which his brother Michael opened in the late 1960s and which he took over in 1979. Indebtedness forced him to sell it in 1989, but he bought it back in 1991.
``He got done what he wanted done,'' said Butch Clark, an Oceanfront motel owner who worked summers in the early 1960s as a lifeguard with Mike and Chris Worrell. ``And he was always above-board about it.''
``He was a very shrewd, a very bright kid,'' added John R. New-hart, Chesapeake sheriff, fellow South Norfolk native and occasional investment partner. ``He knew what was going on and in a very quiet way. One thing a lot of people don't know about was that he was the main lobbyist for the restaurant association years ago.''
In 1975 Worrell Brothers became the first bar at the beach to get a mixed beverage license, and it quickly became the most popular watering hole at the Oceanfront. Booze and beer flowed, music rocked and people waited in line outside its doors to join in the revelry.
``We went through the transition from old Beach Borough to the new city,'' said brother Mike on Tuesday. ``We kind of had one foot in the old and one foot in the new.''
While Mike's name became closely associated with the now-defunct Worrell 1000 Catamaran Race, an East Coast endurance contest that stretched from Virginia Beach to Florida, Chris concentrated on his business interests. Eventually the race split up the brothers as business partners, but only for a few years.
In the interim, both saw substantial financial gains and losses. Recently, Chris made a business comeback and had his eye on future ventures, according to his brother.
``He leaves a young family, but he made some good investments and I'm sure they'll be well cared-for,'' Mike Worrell said.
``Last year he bought one of his dearest life's dreams - a 60-foot catamaran - and brought that up from the (Windward) islands in July. He was going to start up a charter boat business down there.''
The Worrells were born to a blue-collar family in South Norfolk. They were raised by their grandparents after their parents divorced and their father died. As teenagers they gravitated to the sun-washed lifestyle that beckoned in Virginia Beach and anchored their lives and their hopes in the growing seaside community.
Chris Worrell leaves behind his wife of seven years, the former Carol Jolly; their two daughters, Chessy and Catze; and a daughter by a previous marriage, Mary.
A memorial service for Chris Worrell will be held Thursday at 1 p.m. at H.D. Oliver Funeral Apartments on Laskin Road. Afterward, a private gathering of friends and family members will be held at Worrell Brothers Restaurant on Atlantic Avenue.
``At his request he is to be cremated and his ashes spread over the ocean off Rudee Inlet,'' said Mike Worrell. ``Almost every day he liked to go sailing out there in his catamaran.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Chris Worrell, who died Tuesday at 50, had battled cancer for a
year. by CNB