July 25 - Harriet Burns

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On this day, in 2008, Harriet Burns passed away in Los Angeles, California. Born as Harriet Tapp in San Antonio, Texas on August 20, 1928, growing up during the Great Depression really brought out her creative side. Toys and games couldn't be purchased, they had to be created out of materials that could be found. How imaginative was Harriet as a child? While most kids would give their pet goldfish a name like Goldie, she named hers Tackaonsitgo Popeye Gotsinyammer Cockapinay Kasuzyanna Karachi Dianashey Brianashey Jickalicky Jackaboney Christianna More and could actually remember the whole name every time. Was she destined to become an artistic Legend? Whether you believe in that sort of thing or not, yes.

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Following high school, Harriet's father told her that he would only pay for college if she majored in Home Economics (yes, that was, and still is, a thing). She agreed and enrolled at Southern Methodist University in Dallas but, in the end, pulled one over on dear old dad by changing her major to Art, kind of forgetting to tell him about that. After graduating from SMU, Harriet spent another year at the University of New Mexico studying advanced design (no word on whether or not dad paid for that). In 1951, she married her college sweetheart, Bill Burns and did some work designing displays for Neiman Marcus in Texas.

In 1953, the Burns family moved to Los Angeles, California so Bill could try his hand at a career in acting. It didn't work out terribly well. In spite of the fact that she had a one-year-old daughter at home, Harriet decided that she'd better find some work to help pay the bills. On the basis of her previous design work, she was able to get a position with Dice Display Industries Cooperative Exchange, a Hollywood based prop company. For a little over a year, Harriet designed and built props for shows like the Colgate Comedy Hour. She was also part of a team that designed and built sets for the floor shows at Las Vegas hotels like the Dunes. Near the end of her short time with Dice, Harriet was a leader of the team that designed Santa's Village, a small theme park in Lake Arrowhead, California. Even with all that steady work, Dice Display still went belly up in early 1955. One of Harriet's co-workers decided to  return to his former place of employment and suggested that she try to get a position there as well.

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Harriet heard rumors that the Walt Disney Studio wasn't hiring women right at the moment, but she applied anyways. She later quipped that they must have thought her name was Harry because she got the job. Her first assignment was on a new television show the studio was working on, The Mickey Mouse Club. She started out making props but soon was helping to design and build the iconic clubhouse set that would feature prominently in every episode. Harriet worked her magic at a station right next to Fred Joerger, who was one of two people in a new department known at that time as Model Department. Fred's admiration of her talents would change the course of her career (as well as the look and feel of Disney theme parks).

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Fred worked with Wathel Rogers doing a very specific job that Walt felt needed to be done. They were making models of everything that was being built for the company's new theme park over in Anaheim, Disneyland. Fred felt that he and Wathel could use the help of Harriet in their model work and suggested to Walt that she become part of their department. Walt agreed and Harriet was transferred in. She was only the third person, and the first woman, to become what would eventually be known as an Imagineer. It's a position she would hold until her retirement over thirty years later.

Harriet's first task in the Model Department (soon to be renamed WED Enterprises), was to create a detailed model of Sleeping Beauty Castle, the most iconic landmark in Disneyland. Once the park was opened in July 1955, the trio at WED continued making models of attractions, but now they started depicting potential rides instead of existing ones. One of Harriet's first projects of this kind was to design and build a model of the Matterhorn Bobsleds ride, a 1/100th scale replica of an attraction that was a 1/100th scale replica of the actual Matterhorn in Switzerland.

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As time went on, WED Enterprises began adding more and more people to its ranks and taking on more and more projects. Designing and building four attractions for the 1964 World's Fair pushed everyone's creativity to the limit and everyone, including Harriet, showed they were more than up to the task. Harriet was part of two teams for the Fair, the one working on Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln for the State of Illinois pavilion and the one creating the Carousel of Progress for the General Electric pavilion. Both of those projects have stood the test of time. Great Moments is still running on Main Street USA in Disneyland and the Carousel is still turning in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom.

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During the same time work was progressing on the rides for the World's Fair, Harriet was also busy doing another role she played with WED: she was a figure finisher. That meant she was one of the people who carefully applied paint and other materials to both Audio-Animatronics and the sets of attractions to give them their show ready or finished look. The first attraction she did this for was the Submarine Voyage which opened in 1959. It was the next one, though, that really showed off her talents. While doing finishing work on The Enchanted Tiki Room, hand applying thousands of feathers to the shows dozens of birds. she noticed a problem. When the four main birds breathed in and their chests puffed out, everything looked fine, but when they exhaled and their chests went back to normal, their skin looked bunched, kind of like Jose and the others were suffering from mites. Harriet solved this problem one day in a meeting. Walt was wearing a cashmere sweater and she couldn't help but notice that the knitted fabric moved at his elbows exactly like the Imagineers had envisioned the birds chests moving. Four custom made cashmere bird skins later and the bunching problem was fixed.

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Harriet was deeply involved in the design Disneyland's first major expansion, New Orleans Square, and all the restaurants and attractions that call it home. She made a model of the entirety of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and was one of the attraction's main figure finishers. For anyone wondering where Imagineers get their inspiration from, it just might be you. The pirate that sits on the bridge swinging his leg and singing as guests float under him was based on Harriet's mailman at the time. She was also part of the design team that created the Haunted Mansion just a couple of years later. Sharp eyed guests will notice a tombstone at the Mansion about an opera singer who shares a name with Harriet (it's not a coincidence; all the tombstones at the Mansion honor the attraction's original designers). Walt was so impressed with her talents, he featured Harriet on several episodes of the Wonderful World of Disney throughout the Sixties, showcasing her work in the Tiki Room, Pirates and the World's Fair rides.

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Harriet was part of Walt Disney Imagineering until her retirement in 1986. Not only did she work on stuff at Disneyland but she was also influential on the designs of Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and EPCOT Center. She would continue to spend the rest of her life creating magic just on a smaller scale, doing it exclusively for her grandchildren and their friends. She also remained highly active in the Santa Barbara arts community, where she maintained her home. In 1992, she was honored with her very own window on Main Street USA in Disneyland, the first woman to ever receive one. It reads "The Artisans Loft, Handmade Miniatures by Harriet Burns." In 2000, the pioneering Imagineer was officially declared a Disney Legend. She passed away eight years later from complications brought on by a heart condition. She was 79.

July 18 - Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln

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On this day, in 1965, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, an Audio-Animatronic show, began wowing guests on Main Street USA in Disneyland.  In the late Fifties, Walt wanted to expand the Main Street USA area of Disneyland, specifically by building an attraction that was a tribute to the Presidents of the United States, all 34 of them up to that point. The problem was that Walt's vision had outpaced the technology of the day. There just was no physical way to create the show he had planned in his head, even if he had unlimited amounts of money to do it. The idea had to be shelved and the expansion never happened.

Several years later, as Disney was signing contracts to provide rides and shows for the 1964 World's Fair, the Imagineers of WED Enterprises brought a prototype of a new technology to show their boss. Since they couldn't make a show with 34 moving Presidents, they'd been focusing on making a single mechanical man in the likeness of Walt's boyhood hero, Abraham Lincoln. The Imagineers had managed to create something that, although quite primitive by today's standards, was kind of magical. Walt was intrigued by it, convinced the state of Illinois they needed it for their Fair pavilion and got them to foot the bill for constructing it.

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The first attraction with Audio-Animatronic technology to open was the Enchanted Tiki Room in 1963. Compared to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, though, the Tiki Room is simplicity itself. A few beaks open and close, some wings flutter and eyes blink (granted this occurs on over a hundred different figures at once, but still). As impressed as guests were by singing birds and crooning flowers, they were floored by what what they saw in the Illinois pavilion. Great strides had been made in Audio-Animatronics in a short time. Not only did Lincoln speak and gesture and address different parts of the audience, but HE STOOD UP FROM HIS CHAIR! WHAT IS THIS SORCERY? Audiences marveled at the life-like qualities of the figure in the show and made Illinois one of the must-see attractions of the Fair.

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When the last guest had passed through the 1964 World's Fair, the Disney attractions were hands down some of the highlights of the whole affair. They were already pretty much paid for by the pavilions that had commissioned them and were already popular with guests, so it was natural that Walt would want to incorporate them into Disneyland. Three of the four attractions were installed whole while just the Audio-Animatronic dinosaurs from the Ford Pavilion made their way into part of the Disneyland Railroad. Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln found its way to Main Street USA (although it was a duplicate attraction, the original was believed to have been lost when the Illinois pavilion was completely demolished; turns out, the original figure was actually carefully packed up, delivered to California, strangely forgotten and discovered years later in storage), it's a small world took over Fantasyland and the Carousel of Progress landed in Tomorrowland. All four of them can still be seen today.

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Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln ran at Disneyland until 1972 before undergoing its first rewrite. The new show that opened in the space, The Walt Disney Story, actually didn't include the figure of Lincoln for the first three years. He was reinstated as part of the show in 1975, after thousands of guests asked where he went. And that's has been his status since then. Eventually a new gets written that leaves old Abe out and eventually he has to be written back in because people love and miss him. You can see him as part of the current show, The Disneyland Story Presenting Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. His technological aspects have been updated over the years making him still just as cool to watch as when he first stood up to illuminate guests over fifty years ago. Oh, and Walt did finally get that tribute to the Presidents he wanted, he just didn't live long enough to see it happen. You can see it at the Hall of Presidents in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World (now with forty-five moving figures!).

June 15 - Bill Martin

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On this day, in 1917, Wilson E. Martin was born in Marshalltown, Iowa. Bill, as he was known, and his family moved to Los Angeles, California when he was still pretty young. After high school, he went to Los Angeles Junior College and then on to the Chouinard Art Institute to study architecture. Following his graduation from Chouinard, Bill got a job as a set designer for 20^th Century Fox in 1940. His career was interrupted by World War II, which he spent in the United States Air Force as a bombardier trainer. Following the war, Bill worked for a company called Panoramic Productions before returning to Fox, this time as an assistant art director. Then, in 1953, he got an offer he couldn’t refuse.

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While working at Fox, Bill got a phone call. Someone from the Walt Disney Studio was wondering if he would like to switch companies. Disney was looking for new talent to become part of a group of employees referred to as Imagineers, was he interested? Bill jumped at the chance and became part of the team working to make Walt’s Disneyland dreams come true. One of his first assignments was to travel around to existing amusement parks to study existing systems and figure out what was working and, more importantly, what wasn’t. Then it was back to Burbank for massive brainstorming sessions.

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Bill would be the first to admit that not all of his ideas were great ones. Take, for example, the corset shop he dreamed up for Main Street USA called The Wizard of Bras. Obviously that particular shop never made it past the idea phase, but it was that kind of creative thinking that convinced Walt to make Bill the art director for Fantasyland. As a result, he was integral in shaping the design of everything in the area, attractions like Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and Peter Pan’s Flight, as well as the land’s general layout and look. Once Disneyland was opened, Bill would move on to other projects in the ever expanding park. He helped design the Autopias, Bear Country, the monorail system and New Orleans Square including both its signature attractions, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion.

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By 1971, Bill had become the Vice President of Design at WED Enterprises (now called Walt Disney Imagineering). He was the man in charge of the master layout for the company’s newest theme park endeavor, the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World. Bill’s personal design projects included the famous utilidors (the ‘tunnels’ underneath most of the Magic Kingdom’s guest areas), Cinderella Castle, Main Street USA (still no corset shop though) and the system of canals which connect various areas of the entire Florida property. As if that wasn’t enough, he also designed a wide array of watercraft that was going to be used in those canals, including the large ferry boats that run between the Magic Kingdom and the Transportation and Ticket Center and various smaller steam launches and side wheelers.

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Bill officially retired from Disney in 1977, but, like so many of the influencers of that era, he didn’t simply walk away. He continued to keep his hand in the theme park creation business, just on a consultation only basis. His influence can be experienced in the Mexico and Italy pavilions at Epcot and the master layout for Tokyo Disneyland. Bill was, naturally, declared an official Disney Legend in 1994 for taking the theme park design torch from Walt himself and carrying it right on into the future. He has also been honored with not one but two mentions on Main Street USA windows. If you are in Disneyland, look above the Main Street Bank and you’ll see a window with his given name, Wilson Martin, right over the name Gabriel Scognamillo, who was the art director for Tomorrowland during Disneyland’s creation. If you find yourself in the Magic Kingdom, Bill is named as part of a larger group of Walt Disney World’s original designers on a window above the Plaza Restaurant. That window reads “Walter E. Disney - Graduate School of Design & Master Planning - Instructors, Howard Brummitt, Marvin Davis, Fred Hope - Headmaster, Richard Irvine - Dean of Design, John Hench - Instructors, Vic Greene, Bill Martin, Chuck Myall.” Bill passed away on August 2, 2010. He was 93.

June 14 - Evelyn and Claude Coats

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On this day, in 1910, Evelyn Henry was born in Edmonton, Ontario, Canada. When she was three, the family moved to Southern California, first to San Diego and then to Los Angeles. Evelyn studied art at Los Angeles High School and became a master at silk screening. In 1932, she was hired over at the Walt Disney Studio in the Ink and Paint Department as an inker, tracing the animators' pencil drawings onto cels. One of her first projects was the Silly Symphony The Three Little Pigs. Evelyn continued working on the Symphonies, contributing to the Academy Award winning The Old Mill for instance, while occasionally branching out into other series, like Mickey's first color short, The Band Concert.  

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During production on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Evelyn was promoted to head of Ink and Paint. She was specifically in charge of supervising the late night and weekend shifts all the women had to work if the studio was ever going to be finished in time for the  film's release date. At one point there was a brief break in the grueling schedule and Evelyn used it to marry one of the studio's background artists, Claude Coats. Following Snow White, she continued supervising the work that started up on the next animated feature, Pinocchio. 

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In 1939, she decided to retire from Disney to focus on raising a family. She turned the Ink and Paint Department over to her friend, Grace Bailey, and walked away for forever. Or so she thought. When the Great Animator's Strike came along in 1941, the studio was desperate for people to keep things moving along. They called Evelyn asking her if she could return to ink some cels for old times sake. She said sure and crossed the picket lines for several months (she later said she did not support the strikers in any way), helping to keep production on Dumbo rolling along. When the strike ended, she returned to her home in Burbank, at that point finished with her professional career.

Her husband, Claude, on the other hand, continued on to bigger and better things. Born on January 17, 1913 in San Francisco, California, he lived most of his childhood in Los Angeles as well, eventually graduating from Polytechnic High School. He went to the University of Southern California as an architecture student but changed majors and graduated with a degree in art, specifically drawing. He went on to study water color painting at the Chouinard Art Institute and became a member of the California Water Color Society. This led to an interview at the Walt Disney Studio and, in 1935, Claude began an apprenticeship as a background artist.

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Claude started out doing backgrounds for Mickey Mouse shorts such as Mickey's  Fire Brigade and Pluto's Judgement Day but it was his work for the Silly Symphony series that really got him noticed. His distinctive, richly layered backgrounds on films like The Old Mill and Ferdinand the Bull helped push both of them into the winner's circle at the Academy Awards. (It also brought him in contact with a fetching young woman in the Ink and Paint department.) These accolades convinced Walt to hand pick Claude to create the backgrounds for the studio's first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Over the course of his career, he would paint backgrounds for 15 features, ending with Lady and the Tramp, and influence the look of several more. But his contributions wouldn't end there.

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In 1955, Walt once again hand picked Claude to join WED Enterprises, what would eventually come to be called Walt Disney Imagineering, as an art director and show designer. Along with the Legendary Mary Blair, he was responsible for crafting the look of three of the four attractions Disney built for the 1964 World's Fair: Carousel of Progress, Ford Magic Skyway and it's a small world. Following the fair, Claude served as a designer for such classic attractions as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, World of Motion and Horizons. When he retired in November 1989, there was an attraction of his design in Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT Center and Tokyo Disneyland, every Disney park that existed except the newly opened Disney MGM Studios. For all of his spectacular work on the screen and in the parks, Claude was declared an official Disney Legend in 1991. You've also seen his name outside the Haunted Mansion on a tombstone that reads "At Peaceful Rest Lies Brother Claude – planted here beneath this sod."

Claude passed away on January 9, 1992 at the Coats' home in Burbank, California. He was just eight days shy of his 79th birthday. Evelyn remained there, spending her time volunteering at the Braille Institute, Goodwill and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She passed away on July 13, 2009. She was 99.

February 6 - Marty Sklar

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On this day, in 1934, Martin Adrian Sklar was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The son of a teacher and a Johnson and Johnson employee, he moved with his parents to Long Beach, California when he was twelve. After graduating from high school, Marty began attending the University of California, Los Angeles and working various odd jobs including ice cream scooper and USPS package deliverer. In his junior year, he became editor in chief of UCLA's student newspaper, The Daily Bruin. As that school year was winding down in May 1955, his phone rang with a message that he should call Card Walker, the head of Disney's publicity department, for an interview. Marty returned that call and began an incredible journey.

Disneyland was set to open in just a few weeks when Card hired Marty to produce The Disneyland News, a weekly newspaper all about the goings on at the new park. It took Card twenty minutes to decide Marty was the right guy for the job, but he still had to pass one more test: a presentation outlining his vision for the paper to Walt himself. Marty recalled being one of the most nervous 21-year-olds to ever exist, but whatever he said, it only took Walt ten minutes to approve. Walt was so impressed with Marty's work on the paper that, after graduating from UCLA in the spring of 1956, Marty was hired on full time to write marketing brochures for Disneyland.

Marty quickly became a close aide to Walt, writing many of the things that Walt would say in speeches or in print. He seemed to have a feel for how his boss would want to word things more than anyone else in the company. In the early Sixties, Walt brought Marty into WED Enterprises (now known as Walt Disney Imagineering) specifically to work on the Ford Pavilion for the 1964 World's Fair (he would write the script for Walt's narration of the Magic Skyway ride). He then went on to help develop The Enchanted Tiki Room and It's a Small World. He was instrumental in helping convince the Florida legislature that it would be a good idea to sign off on the Florida Project, first with a 20 minute film about the history of the company that piqued their interest and then a 25 minute film detailing Walt's plans for EPCOT, the Utopian city of the future, that sealed the deal.

When Walt died in December 1966, Marty admitted that it affected him more than when his father died. Not because he loved his father less, but because he'd spent a decade at that point getting inside Walt's head and virtually becoming him. Even though, as Marty later described it, it was obvious that Walt was dying, the company had failed to prepare a statement about his passing. Everyone seemed to turn to Marty, who honored his boss and friend, not for the first time and certainly not for the last, with a loving tribute that Roy O. Disney hastily signed and released.

Over the next several decades, Marty became increasingly important to Walt Disney Imagineering. As a touchstone to the past, he never said what Walt would or would not have liked or done, but everyone agrees that when Marty gave an opinion, it felt like it came straight from the founder. He helped shepherd the creation of Walt Disney World and, in 1974, became the Vice President of Concepts and Planning. At that point, he spent his days guiding the development of Epcot, turning it from a city in a bubble into a theme park showcasing technology and world cultures.

As the pages of the calendar turned, Marty moved up to Executive Vice President and then President of Imagineering. He supervised the construction of every Disney theme park from Tokyo Disneyland in the early Eighties to Hong Kong Disneyland in the early Aughts. In 2006, as he passed his 72nd birthday, he stepped down from his position as President to embark on an entirely new role: the first International Ambassador for Walt Disney Imagineering. For the next three years, Marty travelled the globe, giving seminars, recruiting new talent and representing the company at galas and openings. On June 17, 2009, the 54th anniversary of Disneyland, Marty Sklar, the keeper of the keys for over 53 years, retired. On that same day, he was honored with a window on Main Street USA in Disneyland that reads "Main Street College of Arts and Sciences - Martin A. Sklar, Dean - Inspiring the Dreamers and Doers of Tomorrow." He's also been honored with a window in Disneyland Paris that reads "Main Street Gazette - Since 1867 - We Print the News Before It Happens - Martin Sklar, Editor-in-Chief - Tony Baxter, Managing Editor." And he had been an obvious choice for the Disney Legend award in 2003.

Marty may have retired in 2009, but like so many of the old timers, he never really left. He frequently appeared in panel discussions at D23 (the official Disney fan club) events. He was also present for the opening day of Shanghai Disneyland in June 2016, making him the only cast member to be there in person for the opening of all twelve Disney theme parks in existence. A little over a year later, on July 27, 2017, Marty would quietly pass away at his home in Hollywood Hills, California. He was 83.

January 28 - Ralph Kent

On this day, in 1939, Ralph Kwiatkowski was born in Buffalo, New York. He would later change his last name to Kent because then, according to him, people would at least be able to pronounce it. As a child, Ralph fell in love with all things Disney the moment he saw Pinocchio. He wrote to Walt once and asked him for a job. Walt even wrote back, explaining that he didn’t have any positions open for an eight year old but if Ralph kept studying and working on his drawing skills, something might open up in the future.

So Ralph followed Walt’s advice, eventually graduating from the Allbright Art School in Buffalo in 1960. He then enlisted in the Army and worked on training films, illustrating the aids that went with them. After an honorable discharge two years later, he headed straight for Southern California to see if anything had opened up. To his delight, something had and, in 1963, Ralph became a marketing production artist for Disneyland.

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One of Ralph’s first big projects was to design the training materials for all four of the Disney built attractions that took the 1964 World’s Fair by storm. Over the next several years, he created promotional pieces for new attractions like the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Jungle Cruise. He also designed merchandise like souvenier books for Pirates of the Caribbean and a Christmas ornament for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. One of his proudest pieces, and something that has become quite a collector’s item, is a Mickey Mouse watch he worked up that Walt gave out to the company’s top executives in 1965.

In 1971, Ralph moved to Florida and began working his magic for all things Walt Disney World. He would eventually become the director of Walt Disney Imagineering East. One of the biggest influences he had on Disney characters, especially the core group known as the Fab Five, was his tirelessness in making sure they were always drawn the same way. Ralph was also in charge of developing the characters signatures. For a long time, he was one of only a handful of people authorized to sign for Mickey Mouse. Obviously that group has expanded quite a bit since the beginning, but the emphasis on consistency stems from him.

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Along the way, Ralph gained the nickname “The Keeper of the Mouse.” When it came to the Big Cheese, he was fiercely protective of his image. Even though Mickey started out as a prankster and, frankly, a mischievous pain in the butt, over the years he evolved into the saint-like character he is today. Ralph took preserving the shine of Mickey’s halo very seriously. He was highly selective of the kinds of merchandise the Mouse could appear on. Neckties, t-shirts and hats were great. Shot glasses and bras were definitely not. And as long as Ralph was around, that’s how it would be. Which is why we can almost pinpoint when Ralph was no longer in charge of those decisions. It was the moment Mickey shot glasses and underwear began to be available for sale.

Ralph first ended his career with Disney in 1985. Outside of the company, he still freelanced as a designer. Two of his most notable characters are the mascots for the Buffalo Bills, Billy Buffalo, and the Florida Marlins, Billy the Marlin. He couldn’t stay away from his first love forever though. In 1990, he returned to Disney as an artist trainer, eventually becoming a corporate trainer with the Disney Design Group. For his final retirement in 2004, Ralph was named an official Disney Legend and given his own window above Casey's on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom. He would pass away on September 17, 2007 in his Kissimmee, Florida home after battling esophageal cancer. He was 68.

December 22 - Bill Cottrell

On this day, in 1995, Willilam H.D. Cottrell Jr. passed away in Los Angeles, California. Born on November 19, 1906 in South Bend, Indiana, Bill would move to Southern California to attend Occidental College as an English and journalism major. Following graduation, he briefly worked for George Herriman as a story man on the Krazy Kat comic strip. Then, in 1929, he became a camera man at the Walt Disney Studio.

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It wasn't long before Bill transferred to the story department and began making major contributions to shorts like Who Killed Cock Robin? He was a trusted enough part of the company that when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs came along, Bill became a sequence director. His touch can be seen whenever the Evil Queen can be seen.

At the same time, Bill was proving just how small a company the studio really was. He was courting, falling in love with and, in 1938, becoming the second husband of Hazel (Bounds) Sewell. Hazel had brought her sister, one Lillian Bounds, into the ink and paint department with her many years before. In 1925, Lillian had become Mrs. Walt Disney. With his marriage to Hazel, Bill became the brother in law of the Boss. Luckily, he also had the talent to back up his newfound connections.

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Bill and Hazel would join Walt on his goodwill tour of South America in 1941. He is credited with developing the story for the two films that resulted from that trip, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. He would continue to contribute to the stories of many of the studios projects throughout the Forties and into the Fifties, including Melody Time, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. More importantly, Bill was becoming one of Walt's most trusted advisers at a time when something entirely new was brewing.

As the Fifties began and Walt was turning his imagination towards a physical place in the world, he knew he needed a separate company to generate the ideas and technology he would require. When WED Enterprises (now known as Walt Disney Imagineering) was born, he also knew just who he wanted to lead it: Bill Cottrell. As the first president of Imagineering, Bill was responsible for bringing the plans for Disneyland to life. The genius of putting a story man in charge of those plans is fairly obvious in hindsight. Every trash can, lighting fixture and door would fit in with the story that had been created for each attraction, shop or restaurant it was near. The parks would never have the flow they do if it hadn't been for Bill's leadership from the beginning.

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In 1964, Bill became an even closer part of Walt's life when he became the president of Retlaw Enterprises, the private company that managed the Disney family's financial affairs. He would hold that position until his retirement in 1982. Which doesn't mean he didn't still make contributions to the entertainment side of things. He helped develop the Zorro television series and, as a fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories, inspired The Great Mouse Detective.

In 1994, Bill was made an official Disney Legend for his contributions to film, the theme parks and the Disney family in general over his 53 year career with the company.