Robert Gurr was born in Los Angeles, California in 1931. The family moved to Glendale, California near a busy airport serving the Los Angeles area. There were military aircraft constantly flying overhead. Military pilots flew over while training in Stearman aircraft [Annotator's Note: Boeing-Stearman Model 75 Kaydet biplane trainer]. During World War 2, the family lived in Hollywood near Burbank. Gurr's father had a haberdashery shop, but converted that to a restaurant. Gurr was responsible for raising about 1,000 chickens for consumption in the restaurant. He fed them and would kill them for use in the eatery. Rationing was extensive in the war, but the family learned to accept it. For Gurr, as a young man, times were fun and exciting considering the planes and military in the area surrounding where he grew up. To him, school was good and life was a joy.

Robert Gurr heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor while cleaning a car seat. He saw a panicky neighbor running through the street telling the neighborhood about the attack. When he heard the news, his hair stood on end. Everything in his world soon changed. The next day, Gurr with his fellow students at Burbank Military Academy were gathered together and listened to the speech made by President Roosevelt. [Annotator's Note: Gurr becomes emotional at the memory of the declaration of war speech made by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 8 December 1941, the day following the attack on Pearl Harbor.] Times were exciting as large numbers of military aircraft flew over after being completed at the local aircraft assembly factories. Things changed rapidly for the country. There was even an air raid scare one night when Gurr saw searchlights pierce the darkened skies. He heard muffled booms and saw fireworks in the distance. The next morning, he heard on the radio of antiaircraft firing at enemy aircraft. There was also an offshore Japanese submarine which shelled an oil storage facility near Santa Monica. In response to the anxiety after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese-American citizens were removed from neighborhoods and relocated to areas inland for the coast. Some of Gurr's friends were removed in a rapid fashion from his surroundings. It illustrated the nervousness and fear associated with the outbreak of the war. There was concern that the West Coast would suffer from Japanese attacks. Rationing became the most difficult issue of the war for civilians on the homefront. Victory Gardens were popular. The Gurr family grew fruit trees and Gurr would add other types of vegetables and fruit for the family use. During the war, many families would provide more food from their yards than they would purchase from stores. Gurr also raised goats and so the family had milk to consume and sell. With the chickens that he raised, there were eggs and chickens to put on the family table. With scrap drives and reading about the war to keep up its progress, these were exciting times for the young Gurr. Newspapers, magazines, aluminum, and other metals were all frequently collected for recycling. It made even the youngest person feel that they were contributing to the war effort. Some of the students in Gurr's school shop class would liberate metal so that the class could work on various projects. The young boys were resourceful about getting metal any way they could. Gurr worked as a newspaper delivery boy. He started with one route with 100 subscribers. He eventually would have four routes with about 400 recipients of the local paper he delivered. His business was so lucrative that it allowed him to purchase two wartime savings bonds per month. Working rain or shine, he was busy with his multiple ventures. It all seemed like a lot of fun to him.

Among his other responsibilities, Robert Gurr managed several newspaper routes during World War 2. As a paperboy, he was allowed to bring one paper home per day. He enjoyed laying the paper out on the floor and reading about the progress of the war. Principally, he liked to see the maps and the graphic illustrations on the events. The maps provided him with a visual context on the progress of the various opposing forces. Ernie Pyle was an interesting writer whose war stories were so vivid that events were brought to life. [Annotator's Note: Ernst "Ernie" Pyle was a roving war correspondent who covered the European and later the Pacific Theatres of Operation. His folksy style made him beloved by civilians and servicemen alike. He was killed on the island of Ie Shima during the Battle of Okinawa in April 1945.] The newspaper headlines would be in large, bold print proclaiming the major events. The Doolittle Raid was a memory that was unforgettable. Gurr loved the B-25 and would sell sketches of it to classmates for 25 cents each. He was excited that his favorite aircraft design was used to strike back at Japan. The event was special to read about in the newspaper. [Annotator's Note: then Colonel James Doolittle and his air crews on 16 North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers flew off the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV7) in April 1945 on a bombing mission over Tokyo and other major Japanese cities. The successful raid was an immediate morale boost for the American public and military.] As the war progressed, it was obvious to Gurr that the Germans would be defeated. He could tell by reading the newspaper that the United States was winning. The Germans surrendered on V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. Europe was over and the B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber] could be focused on Japan. The question was how to defeat the Japanese when it seemed that they would never quit. One day when he was building a model, Gurr heard that an atomic bomb had been used on Japan. The use of the atomic bomb on Japan meant the war would end soon. The result would also be the end of rationing. On V-J Day, the family filled their automobile with gasoline and took a long trip. [Annotator's Note: Gurr becomes emotional at the memory of V-J or Victory over Japan Day in September 1945.]

Robert Gurr had an early interest in automobiles and airplanes. In his earliest recollections, there are memories of planes and cars. His whole career was built on the initial information he gathered due to those interests. He was a designer without a formal degree. He designed the first monorail in the United States at Disneyland. As a youth, Gurr would sneak into a local airport at Glendale to observe the aircraft. He was caught climbing into a cockpit and operating the controls of an aircraft on the ground. He loved airplanes. He was fascinated by the famous flyers of the day such as Howard Hughes and Wrong Way Corrigan. [Annotator's Note: Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan was a famous early aviator who got his nickname after a transcontinental flight in 1938 from California to New York with a flight plan to return to the West Coast afterward. Corrigan flew to Ireland instead of returning to the West Coast and claimed it was a navigational error, thus the nickname "Wrong Way".] During one air show, Gurr spotted an aerobatic glider. He was intrigued and immediately knew that he wanted to pilot one. He eventually became a glider pilot and flew them for 50 years. His final office location with Disney would overlook that same spot where he saw that first glider that captivated him. With that same building slated to become a museum, Gurr has been promised to be a docent for tours of the facility. [Annotator's Note: Gurr takes pleasure in the anticipation of being a docent.]

Robert Gurr had set a goal of becoming an architect and aircraft engineer. With mathematics being a difficult subject for him, he altered his plan. He aimed at becoming a car body designer. He attended Art Center College of Design which at the time was known as Art Center School in Pasadena, California. He was selected before graduation to go to Detroit for General Motors but was actually hired by Ford Motor Company. After two weeks on the job, he could tell he would not be happy with that profession. He returned to Los Angeles, California and opened his own business. He called it R. H. Gurr Industrial Design. One of his first clients was Walt Disney Productions. He was tasked to develop a body design for a miniature automobile. That was how his direction shifted from airplane design to car design to Disneyland. As a child, he knew where the Disney studios were. To him it was the home of Donald Duck even though most people thought of it as Mickey Mouse's home. Gurr preferred Donald Duck to Mickey Mouse. In later years, Gurr would work in that same facility to help design Disneyland. In 1954, Walt Disney was looking for artistic designers for rides and attractions. Gurr was selected as one of the original 14 designers in that group. They never visualized the park turning into a giant enterprise. Gurr went to Disney to design the miniature car bodies. After seeing his proposal for the car bodies, Disney asked Gurr to join the company. Gurr would often see Disney taking an active role on job sites. There was no formality or real start for Gurr as a Disney employee. It was just one day you are there and working.

Robert Gurr came into contact with Walt Disney by designing speed cars for the Disneyland Autopia miniature car speedway. Disney saw Gurr's design proposals and told a colleague to keep Gurr busy with other projects. Gurr offered to come to work with the Disney Company and was hired. Soon he was tasked with more than the design of the 40 Autopia speed car bodies. He was challenged to complete the chassis design for the vehicles. Before he knew it, he was managing the design, procurement, manufacturing, assembly, and testing of the speed cars. He became the de facto Manufacturing Manager for the Autopia project. It was a job where an individual could organize his coworkers and systematically fast track the job to completion. All he had to do was jump in and get things done. There were no committees or buy-in processes to satisfy. A meeting was generally composed of two or three individuals gathering in a hallway to get a problem solved. Everyone seemed to be a doer at that time. [Annotator's Note: Gurr provides a descriptive comparison between business operations of yesterday versus today's.]

Robert Gurr worked with Walt Disney in the design of Disneyland. Far from the idea people have of Walt Disney knowing the detailed design of Disneyland ahead of time, he rather offered suggestions and "what if" ideas to the designers to spark their interest and innovations. He would not depend on meetings to convey his ideas. Instead, he would walk around the job sites and design areas sharing notions, concepts and ideas about what he viewed in terms of new projects. He would maintain a close contact with the designers to see where their ideas were going and then brainstorm alternate ideas with them if he needed to. The one exception was the EPCOT project. There, Disney had a broad idea of what he wanted and the rationalization of the meaning of that project. It was to be the Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow [Annotator's Note: EPCOT is found in the Disneyworld complex in Orlando, Florida]. He provided the concepts of what the Community would do. In 1965, at the press release for the opening, he explained the ideas in detail. Disney felt he cross pollinated ideas and details between his staff and designers. He worked in a nonjudgmental fashion with individuals. He never criticized their progress if it did not meet his expectations. Instead, he would offer alternate ideas which usually the designer found exciting. Disney sought to improve rather than correct a design. There were exciting times for Gurr in the months before Disneyland opened. Work was seven days a week and in the last few days, they worked 24 hours a day. The achievement of the goal was tough, but it was never thought to be impossible. Opening day was hot. The media and their equipment were everywhere and things were congested. Gurr's Autopia cars were part of the opening parade. After the parade, they had to be returned to the speedway for visitor use. There were vehicle mechanical and electrical problems that had to be corrected. Gurr had to troubleshoot and make repairs quickly. Initially, there were 40 cars for the ride with 37 on the track. By the end of the first week, only two cars remained operational. It was obvious that Gurr was not the engineer Disney had expected. Immediately, redesign of the cars was undertaken. Gurr would work out of his own automobile to repair the cars with his personal tools. Disney came by and questioned Gurr on what he needed. His response was that he had not developed a maintenance plan, but he needed mechanics and a place to store tools. Within an hour, Disney had a temporary storage building brought to Gurr and soon after two mechanics reported to assist him in the repairs. Within a week, 37 cars were back on the track. There were still problems, but solutions came faster thanks to Disney's hands-on help for his employees. That approach aided the innovation of the designers. Together, they created a whole industry by just doing it and through implementation of continuous improvements.

Robert Gurr thought that Walt Disney was everywhere in the park on opening day. Disney saw Gurr and came over to him. He was accompanied by an attractive redhead with her two children. Disney told Gurr to watch the female's two children while he showed her the facility. With Gurr's other headaches of opening day, the caretaking of the two youngsters further disrupted his day. Gurr often saw Disney walking the park to check progress prior to opening day. On the day before opening, there was a large celebration, and Disney appeared relaxed. He finally saw that enough of the park was complete to have a successful opening. Disney continued his hands-on observations of the park's successes and problems after the park opened. The Disney Company had many sponsors, but Gurr was not in the marketing side of the business. After recounting numerous sponsors, Gurr also acknowledged that a bra company also sponsored Disneyland. No one could bring themselves to turn down the money offered by the company. [Annotator.s Note: Gurr laughs at the recollection.]

Robert Gurr and those at Disneyland were struggling to survive the opening months of Disneyland. When summer ended and the school year began, the park closed on Monday and Tuesday. That allowed some days to catch up on issues. Walt Disney expected everyone to work on multiple projects, but Gurr soon had a dozen or more concurrent projects. Gurr had the ability to work fast and keep multiple projects going in parallel. He rapidly learned and innovated along the way. It was exciting. Just two weeks after the Monorail project was given to Gurr, there was sufficient progress available in the design for it to be taken to Germany for a meeting with the construction company. Gurr attributes his ability to the fact that he was an untrained doer. He could figure things out on the fly. Disney was good at hands-on oversight and understanding. This aided the pace of design. One of Gurr's design ideas did not last very long in Disneyland. It was the Viewliner train system which was temporarily installed to fill a time frame just prior to introduction of the Monorail into service. It was to fit in Tomorrowland and have a futuristic look. Gurr designed the locomotive and rail cars. He used automobile engines for the locomotives. The train could gain speed rapidly. [Annotator's Note: Replaced by the Monorail system at Disneyland, the Viewliner was a short lived attraction.]

Robert Gurr designed the Monorail for introduction in 1959 at Disneyland. Once he sat down with the idea that Walt Disney had proposed to him, it took Gurr about ten minutes to sketch the conceptual design of the Monorail. Stylistically and visually, it was to become an icon for the future. Its look is still fresh today. It was based on the Viewliner cars with a little B-47 bomber and Buck Rodgers included. [Annotator's Note: in the late 1950s, the Boeing B-47 Stratojet bomber and the Buck Rodgers character were futuristic in appearance.] Unlike today's design by committee, the Monorail was more of a pure design by a single individual. It was Gurr's design and he did not have to noodle with approvals. The Monorail is still an icon today and it remains modernistic due to its simplicity. Richard Nixon was Vice-President of the United States at the time the train was opening. Disney invited him to the opening ceremony. Nixon accepted and was there for the first ride. Disney told Gurr to take him for a ride. He did, but he left his Secret Service men behind. Nixon had finally managed to shed himself of the Secret Service.

Robert Gurr found that the genesis of Disneyland occurred in the 1930s when Walt Disney brought his two daughters to carousels and other amusement rides. The parks were hardly ever clean, and they had a carnival environment. As Disney watched his daughters and ate peanuts, he would ponder the idea of an improved park. He visualized a clean park with a better family atmosphere. He began formulating ideas about parks in those excursions with his daughters in the 1930s. World War 2 and the Korean War interfered with development of those ideas. Afterward, he began to look at a property near his studios in Burbank with the notion of building a family theme park. The park would have some of the characteristics that ultimately ended up in Disneyland. There were to be waterways and a train ride. He commissioned artists to sketch a park composed of the ideas he provided. Soon it became obvious to Disney that the Burbank property would not be sufficient in size. The more Walt looked at the property, the more the park expanded. He acquired a larger property in Anaheim, California. He went from a small, family oriented park where he could take his daughters to a very large theme park. It was the start of the theme park industry. It all started with Walt sitting on a bench watching his daughters on amusement rides and questioning why there were not any clean amusement parks. His solution to the question was to build one himself. Disney had the feeling that if he liked a concept, the American public would like it, too. He had a natural feel for American families. That was his secret weapon for success. He did not use analysis or committee meetings to determine what was acceptable. If he liked it, he knew others would like it as well. There were critics and skeptics along the way. There were predictions of failure, but Disney's reliance on development of the family atmosphere park would result in his work being successful. The People Mover and Autopia [Annotator's Note: two of the more popular rides that Gurr designed for Disneyland using Disney’s concepts] were two good examples of family rides that would be enjoyable for all ages. Those that worked for Disney had a hard time knowing what their boss was thinking when he arrived at his concepts. The bottom-line was that the theme parks turned into a nice place to be and families enjoyed them.

Robert Gurr could see that Walt Disney was intimidating to certain people. Some of those people were very important individuals. Gurr saw Disney as a completely normal person. He had a constant presence at the Disney studio. He was available to share ideas and to talk with concerning projects. He was very accessible. He did not use complicated language. He was easy to communicate with for all staff levels. Conversations were ordinary and without complicated language. He dealt directly with his people and enjoyed sharing ideas. He avoided giving orders or communicating through layers of management. He went directly to his people, and in so doing, he was viewed as a regular guy. He had his own unique habits like any individual. He drove his personal car and pumped his own gasoline. At a certain point, he confided in Gurr that he was sad that he was losing his privacy because he was becoming more recognizable by the general public. Disney did not ride in fancy cars or use limousines. When a job related field trip was required, Disney would hop into a car and drive to the site or have someone else drive him. Gurr brought him to a job site where Disney wanted to see the work. Disney did not have a report generated, or a meeting convened, or the work physically brought to him. Rather, Disney went to the work. He was an ordinary guy in the ordinary business world. Gurr was questioned about his memory of Disney's death but refused to comment. [Annotator's Note: Disney died in 1966 at age 65 years old. Gurr was not comfortable with the memory of Disney's death.]

Robert Gurr learned a lot from Walt Disney. Perhaps the most significant thing that Disney taught him was to have a relentless and unbounded curiosity about all things around him. Disney was the type of individual who observed and absorbed his surroundings. He learned by asking questions about what he saw. He gained a tremendous amount of knowledge that way. Disney also knew how to build things with his own hands. Gurr would respond to a Disney design challenge by incorporating ideas learned through his own personal curiosity. That inquisitiveness had been inspired by his mentor. As a result, Gurr had a head start on developing design responses to Disney's challenges. Undying curiosity was the number one characteristic that Disney taught Gurr. Gurr felt that beside Disney's influence on him, most Americans would also think that Disney had a major impact on them, too. From telling classic tales, to emotional and timeless stories, to developing wonderfully detailed theme parks, Disney did a substantive job of doing things with believability and thoroughness. Disney's innovations and developments of the 1950s hit a particular sweet spot in American life where the ideas gained acceptance by the American public.

Walt Disney always challenged Robert Gurr with multiple projects. Even though Gurr was heavily involved in the Carousel of Progress, the Small World boats and animation and the New York World's Fair Skyway, Disney gave him a new job. Gurr was asked to tackle a design that had bedeviled other designers. An animated Abraham Lincoln with fewer parts, less weight and greater mobility was sought by Disney. Gurr was his man to get the job done. Gurr looked at the existing design but decided to go at it as if he would be developing an airplane design. He used airplane design ideas and parts to successfully respond to Disney's request. The design was done by hand without the use of computers. The drawings were only developed after the design was completed. Gurr used many of the concepts he had learned through his studying of airplanes in his younger days. The successful design was a result of his undying curiosity. Gurr recounts the successful designs he worked on at Disney. Among the successful projects were the Monorail, the People Mover, Small World, Matterhorn, Abraham Lincoln, Viewliner, Autopia, Carousel of Progress, Red antique cars on Main Street, Fire engines, the motorboats, the Star Jets, Skyway, the parking lot trains, and the submarine. He worked on 60 projects in the first five years and 245 projects overall. After Disney, Gurr would go on to work in Las Vegas on various major attractions there. Gurr has high regard for Kelly Johnson who designed the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft and the SR-71 Blackbird. Johnson could design the exterior of an aircraft and make it work inside because if it looked right, it could fly right. Johnson was a pure designer, and his P-38 fighter would become one of Gurr's favorite aircraft. Another hero for Gurr was Burt Rutan because of his design abilities.

Robert Gurr was hesitant to use the term genius in relation to Walt Disney. Disney had the DNA and the instinct to come to design conclusions quickly. Even without calculations or analysis, the skill allows a designer to reach a potential solution through viewing the problem and answer in his mind. Burt Rutan was another designer capable of performing design in this way. The methodology requires reaching the TLAR solution quickly. TLAR stands for That Looks About Right. Use your mind to reach a notional design even before stress analysis or other design evolutions. A design can be done by getting it into the concept stage using its large pieces first. The rest will follow.