Talk about pertaining to the Disney family! Imagineer Kim Irvine is the daughter of Disney Legend Leota Toombs Thomas and Disney animator Harvey Toombs. She also happens to be the daughter-in-law of Dick Irvine, one of WED’s key executives until his retirement in 1973.
In 1970, at age sixteen, Kim began her career at WED, where she worked alongside many of the Imagineering legends such as John Hench, Mary Blair, Marc Davis, and Claude Coats.
John Hench became Kim’s mentor, as he relied on her more and more for her color expertise, a skill for which John was the undisputed master. This skill would serve Kim well over the ensuing decades when she led the art direction at Disneyland. […]