Yale Gracey

Yale Wilbur Gracey (September 3, 1910 – September 5, 1983) was a Disney Imagineer, writer, and layout artist for many Disney animated shorts, including classics such as The Three Caballeros and Fantasia. Gracey joined the company in 1939 as a layout artist for Pinocchio. In the 1960s, he designed many of the special effects for the Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion attractions at Disneyland. Among these was a fire effect, developed for Pirates of the Caribbean,^[1] which appeared so realistic that the Disneyland fire department wanted an emergency switch to turn it off in case of a real fire.^[2] The Haunted Mansion character Master Gracey was named in homage to him. Gracey retired from the company on October 4, 1975.^[3]

Gracey was the grandson of Charles G. Yale, businessman and club man, Secretary of the San Francisco Yacht Club and 1st President of the Pacific Inter-Club Yacht Association.^[4][5] His great-grandfather was Colonel Gregory Yale (1817-1871), a mining claims and maritime lawyer, who arrived in San Francisco in 1849, and was involved in Senator Broderick's case, as well as with Salvador Vallejo, brother of Gen. Vallejo.^[6]

He was in partnership under Yale & McConnell, with Attorney General of California John R. McConnell, and sat on committees with Congressman Thompson Campbell, Senator John S. Hager, Congressman Joseph P. Hoge, and at events with Gov. John B. Weller.^[7][8][9] He defended the Vice President of the Republic of Lower California, Col. Watkins, with Gov. Henry S. Foote, and Yale was involved himself in a duel against Bailie Peyton.^[10][11][12]

His fortune amounted to $300,000 in 1857.^[13][14] He was also a real estate investor and an associate of Frank Turk, a pioneer of the city of San Francisco.^[15] His great-uncle, Frank Willey Yale (1854), was married to Fannie Amelia Bleecker, granddaughter of Major general Leonard Bleecker, a member of the Bleecker family of Bleecker Street, New York, and cofounder of the New York Stock Exchange through the Buttonwood Agreement.^[16][17]

Gracey's parents were Enid Yale (1884-1968) and Wilbur Tirrell Gracey (1877-1946).^[18] His father was a US Marshal and diplomat who served in consulates in China, Mexico, Spain, and the United Kingdom. His grandfather, Rev Samuel Levis Gracey (1835-1911) was a Methodist clergyman who had served in the Civil War as the chaplain for 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment ("Rush's Lancers"), 1st Division Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment.^[19]

In 1947, Gracey married Beverly Joyce Newman of Beverly Hills, California. They had two sons, Wayne and Lucky Gracey, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.^[20]

On September 5, 1983, Gracey was shot and killed in Los Angeles by a burglar. His wife was also injured in the attack. Gracey and his wife, Beverly, were staying overnight at their cabana at the Bel Air Bay Club, on Pacific Coast Highway in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of western Los Angeles. The shooting was reported at approximately 2:30 a.m. by another club member. A police spokesman indicated that Gracey and his wife were both asleep when an unknown intruder entered and shot them both, then fled onto the beach. A motive was not determined, and there were no suspects. As of 2023, the Gracey murder remains a cold case.^[21][22]

Gracey's widow, Beverly Gracey, died on November 1, 2017, at the age of 95.^[20]

• Yale Gracey at IMDb