Soon-to-be Disney Legend Joe Rohde has taken to Instagram to comment on today's announcement that the former Imagineer will be inducted as a Disney Legend at the upcoming D23 Fan Event in August.
Joe is best known for his time at Walt Disney Imagineering as the overall creative executive and supervising designer for Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park, including later expansions such as Expedition Everest—Legend of the Forbidden Mountain and Pandora—The World of Avatar.
Joe's other notable projects include The Adventurers Club (formerly a part of Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World); Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa in Ko, and in 2022, he received the Disney Conservation Fund's first Conservation Legacy Award and appeared on numerous documentaries about Imagineering.
Here is what Joe said on Instagram:
Check it out! I'm honored along with some other pretty cool folks to join the 2024 class of Disney Legends at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event…if you've never been, take it from me, it really is ultimate.
While I am flattered and proud to receive such recognition, the real honors go to the people who gave me a chance, the people who mentored and guided me, the people who forgave me when I did foolish things, the people who trusted me to direct them and lead them, the people who actually did the work with their own hands, my family who put up with decades of my coming and going, and not least the guests and audiences who receive all of our work with such enthusiasm.
And, regardless of whatever accomplishment warrants this honor, there would be no Disney Legends at all if not for the most legendary, Walt Disney himself, whose creative impact on an entire century will always far outpace any legends who trail in his wake.
As for me, I will have to decide whether I want to memorialize my handprints, or figure out some way to press the side of my head with my earrings into the cement. …in any case…see you there.
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