Fab News: Farewell to a Beloved Imagineer and a Surprise Hello to a Disney Legend

As most of you know, longtime Imagineer Joe Rohde is hanging up his ears and looking for new adventures, retiring after 40 years at Walt Disney Imagineering! Joe leaves behind a deep, multilayered storytelling style and a legacy of teaching accompanied by a little magic to make it all accessible to Disney guests. But the end of an Imagineering career is, more often than not, not the end of the road when it comes to Disney. In fact, there are new roles from The Mouse most people haven’t even dreamed of!

Joe Rohde

If 80s EPCOT Center kids remember Joe’s face, it’s because one of his first roles was playing Dreamfinder in Dreamfinder’s School of Drama:

Uploaded by Mitsuperboy Experience

If you’ve been to Tokyo DisneySea, you might also recognize Joe as Harrison Hightower, who learns the hard way to not disrespect sacred idols. 

You can hear Joe as Alexander Graham Bell in The American Adventure, he also worked on EPCOT’s Mexico Showcase, as well as the Norway pavilion. He helped create Disneyland’s New Fantasyland, was a character designer on Captain Eo, and of course, there is Tokyo’s Tower of Terror, the Adventurers’ Club, Disney’s Aulani in Hawaii— and the thing he will always be most beloved for by most Disney fans, Disney’s Animal Kingdom park. If Disneyland is “Walt’s Park,” then Disney’s Animal Kindgom is “Joe’s Park.” He even appeared in several episodes of The Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom for Disney+. 

And what about his legendary earrings? Well, that all started back when he got his 15-year anniversary pin from Disney. He celebrated it by sticking it in his ear, and the rest is history. 

No word as to whom is taking over Joe’s current projects, including Lighthouse Point for Disney Cruise Line (the island he was designing). 

Joe is a member of the venerable Explorers’ Club, upon which Disney’s Adventurers’ Club was based. One night, my ex Jim Hill and I were playing with our then-infant daughter Alice in the carpeted area under the stairs when Jim noticed that Joe was there. We invited him over for a drink. He passed on the drink and took to playing with Alice; his 10-month old son was back in California while he was in Florida working on Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and he missed Baby Time. He then took me around the club and showed me his treasures, which came from his personal collection and which did not— everything at eye level was genuine, up and down not so much. Many of the club’s treasures made it to other places, but Joe retained his collection, though he recently sold some of it on eBay to make room for treasures and adventures yet to come.

A WDI Surprise on The Mandalorian

It’s been a couple weeks, so I thought I could post this spoiler about the Mandalorian episode, “The Jedi”. In the town is a quiet but strong civic leader— in fact, he is made leader upon the town’s liberation. 

“I know that face,” I told my husband Noe. “Is he from one of your Hong Kong movies? I know I’ve seen him.”

Later, we learned that the actor playing the role wasn’t a professional actor but a WDI alum and Disney Legend Wing T. Chao, making a special cameo. I vote for Joe Rohde next! Who would you like to see make a cameo on the popular series?

Sharing is caring!