About the Author

Don Iwerks joined his father, Ub Iwerks, in the pantheon of Disney icons when he was presented with the prestigious Disney Legends Award in 2009. Don began his career by following his father to the Walt Disney Studios in 1950. A year later, he was drafted into the U.S. Army Signal Corp Photographic Company and served in Germany, after which he returned to the Studio. For the next eighteen years, he worked closely with his father on many of his ingenious projects for the Studio, the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, Disneyland, and Walt Disney World. In 1966, Don was promoted to Manager of the Studio Machine Shop, where he was involved in the development of cameras, projectors, and other technical systems that are still used in Disney Parks around the world-among them Circle-Vision 360 , wide-gauge 3D film systems, and the projection system for the wildly popular Star Tours attraction. In recognition of contributions to the movie industry made by his innovations, in 1997, Don received the Gordon E. Sawyer Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Board of Governors. That year he was also awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Themed Entertainment Association.

Reviews

#4 of "19 great coffee table books for Disney fans"--Business Insider

". . . an exhaustive look at [Ub] Iwerks' life and relationship with [Walt] Disney, first as friends in Kansas City and then as partners at Walt Disney Studios. . . . Don, a former Disney executive, includes in the book photographs, story sketches and movie posters. He also pays particular tribute to his father's mechanical inventions in special effects, such as cameras and printers, as well as his work on several Disneyland attractions, namely Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World and the Haunted Mansion."--LA Weekly

". . .Even longtime fans of [Ub] Iwerks and his notable achievements (for which he received two Academy Awards) have been largely in the dark about the specifics of his contributions, as well as the details of his relationship with Walt. That unfortunate gap in the historical record has now been rectified with the publication of Walt Disney's Ultimate Inventor: The Genius of Ub Iwerks, Iwerks' son Don's affectionate and highly informative chronicle of his father's years at Disney. Featuring never-before-published photos and engaging first-hand accounts of Iwerks' professional and personal experiences during a half-century career, Walt Disney's Ultimate Inventor transcends the typical industry bio, offering substantial technical details for the specialist, while remaining wholly accessible to the general reader. For anyone familiar with Don Iwerks' own illustrious career, the intimacy and knowledgeability of Walt Disney's Ultimate Inventor won't come as a surprise. Himself an Oscar-winning technical innovator who worked with his father for many years at Disney, Don Iwerks is singularly well-positioned to tell Ub Iwerks' story."--Animation World Network

"I am proud to have contributed a foreword to this invaluable history of Ub Iwerks's career written by his son. (It is also an uncommonly handsome volume.) Don Iwerks . . . describes his father's many inventions and innovations in detail but what I value most about this book is his description of Ub's unique relationship with Walt Disney."--Leonard Maltin

"Walt Disney's lifelong friend and colleague Ub Iwerks has been the subject of a renowned documentary film as well as a highly-regarded biography. Now, his career as an innovator, inventor, and creative problem-solver has been documented in an entertaining and beautifully-illustrated focus on Walt Disney's Ultimate Inventor: The Genius of Ub Iwerks. The author of this fascinating work is no less an authority than Ub's son, Don Iwerks, who followed his father to The Walt Disney Studios where Don also developed technology still used in Disney parks around the world. This never-before-told facet of Disney biography and technology is a fascinating addition to the library of any Disney fan."
--Jeff Kurtti, Author and Disney Historian