Disney Legend Joe Rohde Celebrates Life of Fellow Creative Behind Disney's Animal Kingdom

Disney Legend Joe Rohde has taken to Instagram to share the passing of someone who was greatly involved in the development of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. 

Based on his post, he was ready to eulogize this close collaborator, Patsy Tillisch, around the time that new broke of Imagineering legend Eddie Sotto’s passing, though Patty’s had occurred days earlier.

In his post, Rohde wrote: 

“I was just about to eulogize another legendary founder of Disney’s Animal Kingdom when the news of Eddie Sotto’s passing emerged. On Dec. 4th Imagineer Patsy Tillisch passed away. She is not famous and celebrated like Eddie but her impact on the history of theme parks is undeniable.

Patsy was my partner in getting Animal Kingdom from day 1 in 1990 to opening day and beyond. I may have been the creative lead, but she was the day to day driver of the business of getting it done.

Animal Kingdom was so far below the radar that we were able to make Patsy Tillisch the producer of the entire park within six months of her joining the team… as the executive assistant. This raised some eyebrows because she had never produced anything before… However, no one had produced anything like this park before, so Patsy tore through protocols like wildfire, both learning, and remodeling the producer role to suit our needs. Ideas don’t just get done because they are creative… They get done because somebody figures out how to do them. A lot of that was Patsy. (The famous tiger story in which I figure prominently, was Patsy’s idea.) 

Once the park opened, Patsy’s ambition soon took her on to greater adventures, and she left the company to form her own. Patsy was a fierce, adventurous, life-loving, Texas powerhouse. She leaves behind a family that she loved, and who loved her, and a unique theme park that would simply not exist were it not for her organizational energy and behind the scenes advocacy.”

A quick glance at her LinkedIn profiles reveals that her career expanded well beyond Walt Disney Imagineering, before and after. 

She had previously worked for Six Flags for over 8 years, more specifically at the now shuttered Six Flags AstroWorld where he worked her way up the ladder from an hourly ride operator. 

From there, she left for WDI, where she left shortly after the opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, in 2001. 

Under her own company, she led design teams and produced projects for a number of zoos, including the Houston Zoo, Nashville Zoo, Phoenix Zoo and more, as well as parks in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UAE and more for over 15 years. 

She also was contracted as a show producer for Sea World San Diego, and was also the Principal for the Entertainment Development Group, directing production on projects for zoos and theme parks around the world. Since 2020, she was working as a freelance design and project manager.

Our warm and well wishes go out to Patsy’s friends and family.