GLENDALE, CALIF. — Bruce Gordon, a former longtime Disney Imagineer who was involved in the creation of numerous Disney theme-park attractions around the world and wrote or co-wrote an array of Disney-related books, died at his home Tuesday, a Disney spokesman said. The cause of death had yet to be determined Wednesday.
A Disneyland fan since he first visited the Anaheim theme park as a young boy shortly after it opened in 1955 – he built models of Disneyland attractions in his garage while growing up and was a lifelong collector of Disneyland memorabilia – Gordon launched his career at Walt Disney Imagineering as a model designer in 1980.
Gordon, 56, played a key role in the creation of Splash Mountain at Disneyland in 1989 and the 1998 renovation of Tomorrowland, as well as the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which opened in 2003, and Tarzan’s Treehouse, which opened in 1999.
Gordon also was known for his sideline: writing books. The first, co-written with fellow Imagineer David Mumford, was “Disneyland: The Nickel Tour,” a 368-page history of Disneyland told through postcards of the park.
The idea for the 1998 book was hatched in 1983 when Mumford encountered Gordon leafing through a collection of old Disneyland postcards in his office. It is widely regarded as the most authoritative book about the Magic Kingdom.
Among the others he wrote were “The Art of Disneyland,” “Disneyland: Then, Now and Forever” and “Walt Disney World: Then, Now and Forever. “
