Kim Irvine is looking back on 55 years at Walt Disney Imagineering as she prepares to receive The Walt Disney Company’s highest honor. D23’s August 11 interview centers on the Disneyland Park work, mentors and family history behind her recognition in the Imagineering category, and she isn’t treating retirement as the end of that work.
She’s part of a group of 13 honorees that includes Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Tudyk. The Disney Legends Award ceremony will take place on the final day of D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event presented by Visa, with Ryan Seacrest hosting the tributes. Irvine described the honor as thrilling and daunting because several of her most important mentors had received it before her.
Kim Irvine’s Disneyland Park philosophy
Irvine traced her approach to a 1976 assignment leading a newly formed WED Enterprises team dedicated to Disneyland Park. Her mentor, Disney Legend John Hench, reminded her that Walt Disney never intended Disneyland to become a museum or a finished work. It needed to evolve while remaining true to its original purpose.
She also understands why change can feel personal. Irvine said guests may want an attraction, shop or restaurant preserved exactly as they remember it, even when they haven’t experienced it themselves. Her job was to respect that attachment while keeping the park relevant for its audience.
Those instincts began in the WED Enterprises model shop, where Irvine worked beside the original Imagineers. She listened to their stories about Walt and the creation of Disneyland, absorbing the “tribal knowledge” she now tries to pass to younger Imagineers and “Disneylanders.”
A Disney family shaped by the arts
The honor places Irvine alongside Disney Legend Leota Toombs, her mother. Toombs was a painter and sculptor, while Irvine’s father, Harvey, was an animator and cartoonist. Irvine credited both parents with encouraging her and her sister to pursue careers in the arts. She’s tried to give her children and grandchildren the same support, and she hopes more parents will encourage children interested in artistic careers.
The Goofy-hat story is the one that lands for me. During a walk down Main Street, U.S.A., Irvine and Hench saw a father wearing a Goofy hat and dancing through the crowd. Hench smiled and asked, “It really does work, doesn’t it?”
Irvine connected that moment to a broader purpose: bringing people joy, educating through entertainment and reminding them what childhood curiosity and play feel like. She may be retired, but she hasn’t stopped looking for ways to create those memories. After more than five decades at Imagineering, Irvine called the work a “lifelong commitment.”
Source: D23
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