Yale Gracey

Yale Wilbur Gracey (September 3, 1910 – September 5, 1983) was a Disney Imagineer, writer, and layout artist for many Disney animated shorts, including classics such as The Three Caballeros and Fantasia. Gracey joined the company in 1939 as a layout artist for Pinocchio. In the 1960s, he designed many of the special effects for the Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion attractions at Disneyland. Among these was a fire effect, developed for Pirates of the Caribbean, which appeared so realistic that the Disneyland fire department wanted an emergency switch to turn it off in case of a real fire. The Haunted Mansion character Master Gracey was named in homage to him. Gracey retired from the company on October 4, 1975. ()