Morris Benjamin Wilkins, 90, entrepreneur

Morris Benjamin Wilkins, 90, of Honesdale, Pa., a World War II veteran and an entrepreneur who established several honeymoon resorts in the Poconos, attracting couples with his iconic heart-shaped bathtub, died Monday, May 25, of heart failure in Las Vegas.

Mr. Wilkins was born in Stroudsburg, Pa., in 1925, the oldest of three children of Benjamin and Rose Wilkins, Russian and Hungarian immigrants.

He enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Mr. Wilkins served in the Pacific theater until after the end of the war.

Trained as an electrician during the war, he built an electrical contracting business as a civilian.

Mr. Wilkins eloped with Lois Faye Weitz in 1955. They were married for 47 years; she died in 2002.

In 1958, Mr. Wilkins, along with a partner, Harold O'Brien, purchased Hotel Pocopaupack, an 18-room hotel on the shores of Lake Wallenpaupack in Lakeville, Pa.

Mr. Wilkins renamed the hotel Cove Haven and began marketing it as a couples-only resort. In an effort to generate more honeymoon business, in 1963 Mr. Wilkins created the heart-shaped bathtub and installed the tubs throughout his hotel.

Business boomed, particularly after a 1971 Life article featured a photograph of a couple covered only in soap bubbles sharing an embrace in the glossy red tub.

Cove Haven quickly grew to more than 230 rooms. A 2010 Wall Street Journal article reported that the design quickly took hold at vacation resorts all over the world.

"Morris Wilkins has done more for romance than a box of chocolates," quipped Jim Nolan of the Philadelphia Daily News in a 2000 profile.

After selling Cove Haven to Caesars World of Las Vegas in 1969, Mr. Wilkins expanded and opened other resorts, including Paradise Stream, Pocono Palace, and Brookdale, and became president and chief operating officer of Caesars Pocono Resorts.

In the 1980s, Mr. Wilkins continued to define the style of the romantic getaway with innovations such as the private in-suite swimming pool and the seven-foot-tall champagne-glass whirlpool. In 1982, ABC filmed a movie of the week, For Lovers Only, at Cove Haven, with Andy Griffith portraying Mr. Wilkins.

Mr. Wilkins retired in 1997.

He is survived by daughters Lori Wilkins Immerman and Jill; sons Michael and Thomas; seven grandchildren; and a brother.

A funeral service was held Friday, May 29, in Honesdale.