Congrats to Marty

Many congrats to Marty Sklar today on his retirement from the Walt Disney Company.  As one of the few remaining folks at Disney who actually knew and worked with Walt, I’m sure he’s both looking forward to retirement and yet leaving with some sense of sorrow. 

Marty has been a great help to me over the last several years as I’ve worked to get through the pretty thick walls that surround Imagineering.  We’ve only exchanged a few written letters and even fewer e-mails, but it’s because of him and his generosity that I know more people there today than I did two years ago.  Like all things in these days, progress has been slow, but it has been progress on some level no doubt!  Those letter and e-mails are of course now even more cherished in my small collection of Disney related artifacts.

I hope all of you will join me in both congratulating Marty on his well deserved retirement, but as I also said to him earlier this week in the last brief e-mails we exchanged before his retirement:

‘I certainly wish I had more of a compelling reason for us to stay in touch post retirement, if for no other reason than to hear some of the great stories I’m sure are still floating around out there over more than a few decades at WED and Imagineering.  I certainly hope if we don’t, that you find some time to keep adding and filling in the background of a fascinating story and the lives surrounding it.’

From the guy in the front row of the upper balcony, ‘Bravo Marty, bravo…’ and Good Fortune! to you as well.