In Remembrance: John Hench

     Oscar winning artist, and longtime Walt Disney employee John Hench, passed away on February 5, 2004. He was 95.

     Beginning in 1939 Hench was working for Walt Disney as a story artist, and then graduated to the animation department working as a background artist. He provided the background art for the segments "The Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" and "Nutcracker Suite" in 1940’s Fantasia. Hench was also a primary background artist for Dumbo (1941).

     Hench worked as a layout artist on Disney’s 1944 release of The Three Caballeros. Hench was the art director 1946’s episodic modern day musical Make Mine Music. He also supplied the cartoon art treatment for 1949’s live action/animated film So Dear to My Heart. Hench was instrumental in adding the color and styling to Alice In Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953).

     By 1954, Hench was in the studio's live action department, as lead developer of the hydraulic giant squid in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, helping to win an Academy Award for Best Special Effects for the film. Walt Disney respected him as one of the studio's most gifted artists, and he teamed Hench up with Salvador Dali on the long awaited, newly completed short film Destino. Hench’s last work as an artist on a Disney film was 1959, in which he added the styling to Donald in MathMagic Land. 

     In the 1960’s, Hench moved to WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering), to design attractions for Disneyland and Walt Disney World. He designed The Space Mountain ride and took over control of construction for Walt Disney World shortly after Walt Disney’s death in 1966.

     One of Hench’s most recognizable efforts was not for Disney. He was responsible for designed the Olympic Torch for the 1960 Winter Olympics, and nearly all recent versions have been modeled after his design.

     Still working for Disney at the age of 95, Hench was also the official portrait artist of Mickey Mouse and he was awarded the prestigious Disney Legend award, presented by Michael Eisner.  He was scheduled to receive the Winsor McCay Award on February 7^th at the "Annie Awards." The Annie Awards are guild awards given to those in the field of animation.

- John Gibbon