Jim Korkis obit

 Jim Korkis, prolific Disney writer and historian, has died

He was not on the list.

Jim Korkis, a longtime Disney author and historian, has died. He was 72.

He wrote more than 30 Disney-oriented books, including the “The Vault of Walt” series, “Secret Stories of Walt Disney World” and “Animation Anecdotes: This Hidden History of Classic American Animation.” He contributed to multiple websites and was an often-quoted source about the history of Walt Disney Co.

Korkis was also a former cast member at Disney World with roles at Magic Kingdom (Merlin in the “Sword in the Stone” ceremony, Prospector Pat in Frontierland), Epcot guest relations, Pleasure Island, Disney Institute and elsewhere.

Friends and colleagues described Korkis as cheerful, knowledgeable, accurate and prolific.

“He was the ultimate storyteller. I said to him a few times that Walt must look kindly on him as one of the people who’s keeping his legacy alive,” said Deb Wills, former owner of AllEars.net, a fan site that published Korkis contributions.

“He just had a very clear way of communicating and sharing his knowledge. He wrote well, and he also wrote in a way that was easy access for people,” said Didier Ghez, author of the “Walt’s People” series of books. “Kids and adults alike could read one of Jim’s books and say, ‘Wow, this is exciting. I love what he’s talking about.’”

Korkis, also known as a comics and animation historian, was helpful and encouraging to anyone interested in Disney history, Ghez said.

“He was always nudging us to do something with the knowledge we gather and to put it in shape and share it,” Ghez said. “The notion of sharing the knowledge was always really, really important to him.”

Korkis was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and grew up in Glendale, California. He taught drama and English to middle schoolers for 20 years before moving to Orlando in the mid-1990s.

“He was kind of pioneering about writing about Disney history at a time when there wasn’t all that much of it,” said Leigh Caldwell, an editor for AllEars.

“He had this vision from the time that he was very young, that the history of Disney needed to be preserved,” she said. “He started writing Disney history in the ’80s, when Disneyland wasn’t even that old and Disney World was certainly still very new.”

Korkis wrote under the pen name of Wade Sampson while still working for Disney. He was laid off during the company’s recessionary cutbacks of 2009.

“He had spent all this time devoting his life to recording all these things, making sure things were remembered,” Caldwell said. “Then he was laid off … and continued that love for the company, even when maybe he had personal disappointments there.”

After the layoffs, Korkis wrote books under his given name and expanded his reach.

“He was probably writing for 10 or 15 different publications on a regular basis,” said Mark Goldhaber, chief operating officer of MousePlanet website, which ran columns under both the Sampson and Korkis bylines. The final Korkis Korner, a tribute piece by Goldhaber, will go online this week.

“Jim was very much the purveyor of the spirit of Walt. He was very much invested in how Walt would have addressed things,” Goldhaber said.

“Another thing you could depend on Jim for was his honesty,” Wills said. “If he liked it, he liked it. If he didn’t, he told you.”

Korkis is survived by brothers Michael and Chris. A memorial service will be held later.

Korkis had a large stash of interviews with Disney employees, animators and Imagineers, as well as other documentation, Goldhaber said, as accuracy was important to him.

“He would tape record the interview, and he transcribed it by hand. He had a whole library of all of these interviews that he would get out if he needed to check a fact,” Goldhaber said.

Having a written history is important for the industry, said Jason Surrell, a fellow historian and attractions author.

“A lot of the tenets of themed entertainment are literally handed down from generation to generation within these companies. And in many cases, once it’s gone, it’s gone,” Surrell said.

“So, to me, Jim’s work was invaluable in terms of the sheer breadth of things that he covered and documented,” he said. “Now we have that forever. That won’t go anywhere.” He also wrote articles here on AllEars.

In 2012, Korkis defined his job as a Disney historian, writing in a MousePlanet blog post,

“A ‘Disney Historian’ is someone who does original research, like interview people, locate material (in the old days, we did some of this by going through newspaper files and trying to read microfilm and microfiche files in libraries), verify material, and organize that material into a coherent structure. Most importantly, a ‘Disney Historian’ takes the raw facts and connects them into a story so that people can better understand the facts.”

Korkis spoke about Walt Disney’s love of steam trains in a Disney Parks Blog post in 2011. He also wrote a collection of books, including titles like Disneyland Historical Highlights and Final Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Conclusion of the First 50 Years.

Lou Mongello wrote "I am beyond saddened to share that we lost a good man, wonderful human, caring soul, and legend in the Disney family and community today. I will miss my friend dearly.”