Joe Rohde, a prolific Disney Imagineer, announced today that he will retire from the Walt Disney Company effective January 4, 2021.
Rohde has had a tremendous impact on Disney parks around the world in his 40 years with the company. Some of his projects include:
- The Adventurer’s Club at Pleasure Island
- The Mexico pavilion in EPCOT’s World Showcase
- Captain EO, the movie with Michael Jackson
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom
- Expedition Everest: Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
- Disney’s Aulani Resort in Hawaii
- Pandora: The World of AVATAR
Rohde, who turned 65 in September, said the time was right to retire. In an Instagram post, he said that it seemed like the right time to exit the company without causing too much of a disruption. Rodhe said that if he waited too long to exit, he would be in the middle of another big project and, by the time it was over, he would be too old to try other things.
Rhode grew up in Hawaii (which gave him a unique perspective in his work on Aulani), graduated from Occidental College, and started his career at Disney in 1980 as a model designer.
Photo credits (C) Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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