Pat,
Yes he was! I think he did some at Sand Creek in Chesterton, IN in 1974. There was one at Kemper Lakes in 1977 and I recall one at Briarwood (now maligned as not fitting the rest of the course about 1980)
It did seem like a neat idea. I even continued it after starting on my own for a while. I have one at Tierra Santa in Weslaco, TX Stallion Mtn. in Las Vegas, NV and a few others. I have heard reports that nearly all of them have been taken out. As mentioned, the bottoms don't drain and get sloppy. If you look at the Doral photo, you can see its really raised a foot or so above water to avoid that, but apparently wave action or some other factor still caused it to be removed.
I have trouble imagining that Strantz or anyone else can get them to work any better than I could! As such, while a neat and different feature, they will probably dissappear for a generation until some young gca comes up with what he/she thinks is a "new idea" about 2055. And then, the process will begin again!