Bob Gurr never planned on becoming a legend. In fact, this man who became one of the original “Imagineers” for Walt Disney, who designed the Disneyland monorail, Autopia, flying saucers, animatronic Abraham Lincoln, and many other attractions—started his career with no plan at all.

After graduation from the Art Center School in Los Angeles he spent a year in Detroit as a car designer before calling it quits and heading back to California, his future unknown. He soon came to the attention of Mr. Disney, who needed bright, creative people to help him build an amusement park. Fifty years and numerous honors and awards later, “legendary Imagineer Bob Gurr,” as he is traditionally referred to in accounts of Disney history, smiles and notes that if he had mapped out his future back in high school his life never would have taken the surprising turns it did. Most of the assignments he accepted involved doing things he had no experience in, such as designing an animatronic human figure. The trick was in viewing every challenge as an opportunity.

Now he wants to give young people the same opportunity to find a life path they can get excited about. His focus is on the kids who aren’t on the college track and who are most at risk of dropping out of school. Through an endowment fund with IECF, Bob is giving every middle school in Riverside the money to buy books and magazines that focus on trades such as mechanics, electronics, and others that offer career opportunities. “Kids can have an internal passion about almost any subject; the trick is in reaching them before it’s too late. There’s a small window of opportunity in 7th and 8th grade when they’re still open to so much.”

Bob Gurr and IECF staff and board members toured Central Middle School in 2004

Bob chose Riverside for his charitable investment because his family roots are there, going back more than a hundred years. His grandmother’s personal banker was Charles Brouse, originator of what later became The Community Foundation. He is already forming plans for future grants, possibly to include trips to industrial sites where people are building airplanes or designing the lighting for movies and TV shows. “If my grants influence kids in where they go and what they do, it will tickle me pink to know that.”

This story was originally published in our 2005 Annual Report.

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