Roger Broggie Jr.

Roger Edward Broggie, Jr. was an American mechanical engineer and the son of Imagineer Roger Broggie who worked at Disney alongside him.
Born in 1939, Broggie Jr. was surrounded by various co-workers of his father throughout the years, including Walt Disney himself. His father and mother divorced when he was 12, and he spent his teen years watching Disneyland evolve, playing at the park as a construction site and test-driving cars for the Autopia. In 1950, he and his younger brother Michael tended to his backyard railway at the studio mogul's Holmby Hills home until 1953 when Walt shut down railway.
At 18, Broggie Jr. joined the company as an apprentice in the WED machine shop, managed by his father. Like his father, he crafted key contributions to the Audio-Animatronics that are seen in various park attractions, such as Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, the Enchanted Tiki Room, The Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean as well as prototypes shown at 1964 New York World's Fair. In film, Broggie Jr.'s fascination with cars made him the mechanical wizard who brought Herbie the Volkswagon to life on the big screen in 1969's The Love Bug. He created nearly 17 different Herbies, each created and produced to carry out a special "trick" that brought the car to life.
In the late 1970s, Broggie founded the Only Animated Display and Design Company with two other former Imagineers. Their projects included developing attractions for Disney and other theme parks and creating mechanisms for Rose Parade floats. His technological sleight-of-hand also helped bring a memorable end to the 1984 Summer Olympics.
In 2012, he died at a medical center in Bend, Oregon from complications of a head injury sustained when he fell while working on a float for a Christmas parade near his home in LaPine.
==Trivia==
*At the 1984 Summer Olympics, Broggie Jr. helped to fabricate a "spaceship" that appeared to hover over the Los Angeles Coliseum and "converse" in light and sound. The contraption was actually suspended from a helicopter.
*Disneyland pays homage to Broggie Jr. with a a window on Main Street, U.S.A., where his name appears in the window of the Little Gremlins Mechanical Toys shop.
==External links==
*
*LA Times Obituary - Roger Broggie Jr.
*Wishcasting Disney Legends - Roger Broggie Jr.
*Scott Weitz Show Creations - Roger Broggie Jr.
Category:Males
Category:1930s births
Category:2010s deaths
Category:Deceased
Category:People from California
Category:American people
Category:Imagineers
Category:Enchanted Tiki Room
Category:Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
Category:Pirates of the Caribbean
Category:The Haunted Mansion
Category:Disneyland
Category:Herbie
Category:Walt Disney Imagineering