This was in the Buffalo News obituaries yesterday. I fine tribute.
Ralph W. Kent had a Mickey Mouse career. Really.
During his 41 years with Walt Disney Co., the Buffalo native ultimately was responsible for preserving the venerable mouse’s image in merchandising.
Mr. Kent died Sept. 10 in his Kissimmee, Fla., home of complications from esophageal cancer. He was 68.
Born Ralph Kwiatkowski, his dedication to Disney began as a child, when he painted a mural of Disney characters on the basement walls of his family’s home and even wrote to Walt Disney himself to ask for a job. Disney’s reply to the then 8-year-old was to continue studying and drawing.
Mr. Kent was a graduate of Hutchinson-Central Technical High School and Albright Art School, a division of the fine art department of the University at Buffalo. Afterward, he did a two-year hitch in the Army, illustrating military training aids and films.
He changed his last name to Kent, because nobody could pronounce his birth name.
Mr. Kent went to work for Disneyland in California in 1963 as a marketing production artist, developing marketing materials for attractions, including the Jungle Cruise. He helped develop training materials for Disney’s four attractions at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.
It was in 1965 that he designed the first limited- edition Mickey Mouse watch for adults, which so impressed Walt Disney that he presented them to 25 top executives.
Mr. Kent went to work as a designer at Walt Disney World in Florida in 1971, creating souvenirs. By the end of the decade Mr. Kent was director of Walt Disney Imagineering East, overseeing Florida staff support for EPCOT Center and Tokyo Disney.
He became corporate trainer for the Disney Design Group in 1990, teaching new artists the finer points of character model drawing.
After retiring in 2004, Mr. Kent was named a Disney Legend and honored with a window on Main Street at Walt Disney World.
Mr. Kent’s other design work included the mascots of the Buffalo Bills and the Florida Marlins, and serving as art director to Celebrity Sports Center in Denver, Colo., which Disney coowned.
Survivors include his wife, Linda; two daughters, Julie Lowery and Laura Hilgenfeldt; three stepsons, Scott and Michael Dobek and David Gonos; a sister, Joan Grabowski; and a brother, Larry Kwiatkowski. Services were held in Florida.
http://www.buffalonews.com/obituaries/story/168219.html
Ralph W. Kent had a Mickey Mouse career. Really.
During his 41 years with Walt Disney Co., the Buffalo native ultimately was responsible for preserving the venerable mouse’s image in merchandising.
Mr. Kent died Sept. 10 in his Kissimmee, Fla., home of complications from esophageal cancer. He was 68.
Born Ralph Kwiatkowski, his dedication to Disney began as a child, when he painted a mural of Disney characters on the basement walls of his family’s home and even wrote to Walt Disney himself to ask for a job. Disney’s reply to the then 8-year-old was to continue studying and drawing.
Mr. Kent was a graduate of Hutchinson-Central Technical High School and Albright Art School, a division of the fine art department of the University at Buffalo. Afterward, he did a two-year hitch in the Army, illustrating military training aids and films.
He changed his last name to Kent, because nobody could pronounce his birth name.
Mr. Kent went to work for Disneyland in California in 1963 as a marketing production artist, developing marketing materials for attractions, including the Jungle Cruise. He helped develop training materials for Disney’s four attractions at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.
It was in 1965 that he designed the first limited- edition Mickey Mouse watch for adults, which so impressed Walt Disney that he presented them to 25 top executives.
Mr. Kent went to work as a designer at Walt Disney World in Florida in 1971, creating souvenirs. By the end of the decade Mr. Kent was director of Walt Disney Imagineering East, overseeing Florida staff support for EPCOT Center and Tokyo Disney.
He became corporate trainer for the Disney Design Group in 1990, teaching new artists the finer points of character model drawing.
After retiring in 2004, Mr. Kent was named a Disney Legend and honored with a window on Main Street at Walt Disney World.
Mr. Kent’s other design work included the mascots of the Buffalo Bills and the Florida Marlins, and serving as art director to Celebrity Sports Center in Denver, Colo., which Disney coowned.
Survivors include his wife, Linda; two daughters, Julie Lowery and Laura Hilgenfeldt; three stepsons, Scott and Michael Dobek and David Gonos; a sister, Joan Grabowski; and a brother, Larry Kwiatkowski. Services were held in Florida.
http://www.buffalonews.com/obituaries/story/168219.html
