Losing a legend is never easy, and this one hits particularly hard. It was announced today that the former chairman of Walt Disney Attractions, Dick Nunis, has passed away at the age of 91.
Nunis was a bona fide Disney Legend; after hiring on to train new Disneyland employees in 1955, he spent 44 years with the company, departing as the head of all Disney parks and resorts in 1999.
Nunis was no doubt a tough cookie, and stories from past cast member about their encounters with him are legend, but he never stopped fighting for those four important keys – safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency. While I don’t even agree with all of his decisions and opinions – I love theatrical animatronic shows! – there’s no doubt that he was one of the handful of people most instrumental in defining what we remember as the peak Disney park guest experience.
As times change, and corporate America changes, there are fewer and fewer stalwart individuals out there like Dick Nunis, keeping an eye out for the consumer experience and making sure that every detail of the product remains impeccable. He will be missed.
As the memorial statement from Disney quotes him:
“Disney is successful because we are dealing with people. And the words ‘quality’ and ‘pride,’ that is really what it is all about. As long as we design, build, engineer, maintain, and market with quality, that’s going to give our people great pride, and I’ve always said—and I believe it very strongly—that if you don’t have the quality, then you can’t have the pride, and if you ever lose the pride, you certainly will never have quality. And that’s what we should build on for the future.”
Of course, as a historian I can’t help but be selfish in mourning the loss of so many important stories, memories, and anecdotes that Nunis never stopped to put to paper. Many of us requested to interview him over the years; while he declined my request to speak with him about his work on EPCOT, he was kind enough to call in person and explain his reluctance to do so. Reticent to speak of Disney experiences, he was eager to talk UCF football, of which he was a big booster. I would love to have spoken with him at length; one could only imagine the unique perspective of someone who not only worked with Walt but helped shape the definitive park experiences of the 1980s and 1990s.
Hopefully the reaction online will reach his family; I hope they know that although he has been gone from the company for nearly 25 years, his ethos is remembered fondly by generations of parkgoers.
And, speaking as a shorts person myself, I have to say he was right on about them.
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