For Joe Rohde ’73, it’s all about owning your own education. The art and theater courses he took in high school set the stage, literally, for his own career as a Disney Imagineer.

It all began on a dare. Rohde recalls Brother Tom Gustie didn’t just ask him to design a set for a play—he dared the 14-year-old artist to try. And so it was that a leather-jacketed ninth-grade art student (somewhat rough in appearance by his description) ended up helping to build his revolving 15-foot-tall set for The Tempest and playing the part of Caliban. Joe went on to graduate in the last all-male class at Chaminade.

By the time Joe reached Occidental College, he already had the foundation of a liberal arts education. After college Joe found himself back at Chaminade for three years (‘77-80) as the art teacher, where he processed what he had learned so that he could convey it to others. One student’s parent, John Zovich, was an executive at Imagineering who helped him get hired by Disney.

Joe’s subsequent career with Disney combined research, cross-cultural negotiation, and science, one result of which was Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida, a theme park about wildlife conservation. Another assignment was to design Aulani, a hotel in Hawaii that sensitively depicted indigenous Hawaiian culture through art and storytelling. 

As lead designer for the Animal Kingdom, Joe became heavily involved in conservation, spearheading an effort to create the Disney Conservation Fund, of which he is very proud. This fund has disbursed over $130 million in wildlife conservation grants all over the world.

Retired in 2021 as Executive Designer and Vice President, Creative, at The Walt Disney Company, Joe keeps active in The Explorer’ Club and creates art prints that are sold to benefit a Santa Barbara nonprofit arts organization.