Ashland University graduate Bryan Wittman looks back on his incredible career with Disney
You’ve probably heard of Disney rides Pirates of the Caribbean, It’s a Small World and Space Mountain.
How about the Bryan Wittman Disney ride?
“It was a hell of ride,” said Wittman, an Ashland University alum who worked with Disney for 29 years, starting in its promotions department and retiring as the corporate vice president of global marketing events. He was responsible for the creative development, production and marketing of major grand openings, special events, entertainment and festivals for Disney theme parks and resorts worldwide.
The “Wittman ride” closed down about six years ago but is running one more time through his memories of all the people he met, places he visited and things accomplished during his nearly three decades with Disney.
So, sit back and enjoy the ride.
One part of it is kind of like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Look, there’s one of the pirates now, Capt. Jack Sparrow, actually Johnny Depp, who played Sparrow in Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies.
“I worked with many celebrities like Johnny Depp on ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ ” said Wittman, who produced many Disney film premieres, as well as the marketing of numerous thrill rides, attractions and celebrations. “I also did a lot of work with astronauts at NASA. I got to work with Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.”
Wittman said he got to know President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan pretty well, too, when they were in the White House in the 1980s and he was doing Disney events in Washington, D.C.
“Being a Disney guy helped with President Reagan being a California guy,” said Wittman, who pretty much had full access at the White House during the early part of his Disney career.
In addition to the events in D.C., Wittman produced Disney TV specials with CBS, NBC and ABC in the 1980s while he was living in Orlando.
Knowledge about the television industry came during his time at AU, which was known as Ashland College when he attended in the late 1970s. The 1981 graduate majored in TV and radio with a minor in marketing.
“I wanted radio/TV knowledge,” said Wittman. “In the late 1970s, TV was the big thing. It was all about TV, and I thought I better go learn about TV and Ashland had a good TV/broadcasting department.
“I wanted to go to a small school,” added Wittman, who lives now where he grew up in the Buffalo, New York, area in Hamburg, New York, with a population around 50,000 then and now. “I looked at a five-hour radius from my home to try to find the right college and found Ashland. I liked the campus and the community and the easy drive back home. I’m so glad I went to Ashland.”
In addition to the hands-on experience, he received as early as a freshman, Wittman said he also enjoyed learning under the late Larry Hiner, who helped start Ashland’s TV/radio program.
“He was an outstanding, great and wise man,” Wittman said about Hiner. “I learned a lot from him, not just about TV and radio, but about character.
“I had many great professors at Ashland,” he added.
Most of his time at Disney he lived in Los Angeles, where he met and worked with many celebrities, including sports ones since he was responsible for marketing and events for the then Disney-owned Mighty Ducks (National Hockey League) and Los Angeles Angels (Major League Baseball).
Actually, he was a celebrity in California twice as a Rose Parade judge in 2008 and 2012, the only person in the 135-year history of the event to be extended that dual honor, according to Wittman.
“The rules were you could only be picked once as a judge, but they wanted me to do it again, so they changed the rules,” said Wittman, who not only served as the creative force behind Disney productions for the Rose Parade, but also the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York and a number of Super Bowl halftime shows.
For Wittman, years of traveling for Disney, not only across the U.S. but the world, was kind of like riding It’s a Small World. It seemed like one minute he was in Hong Kong and the next in Paris or Tokyo.
Helping launch the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland was probably his most memorable traveling experience with Disney, said Wittman, who also was responsible for developing Disney Cruise Line christenings.
“Disney was a lot of traveling,” Wittman said. “I had to be at meetings all the time all over the world and we didn’t have the technology we have now like Zoom, Teams, etc.”
All that traveling was some of the reason Wittman retired from Disney in 2016.
“I miss the people (at Disney), I miss some of the amazing big cool projects we worked on, but with that came 24/7 availability and many hours on planes, trains and automobiles. I don’t miss all of that,” said Wittman, who also wanted to spend more time with his wife, whom he married toward the end of his time with Disney.
Because Wittman said he loves to work, he hasn’t fully retired. That’s why he started his own marketing company in Western New York, Dry Creek Group, in 2018.
“I was getting calls locally to help organizations and a mentor said to me, ‘Why don’t you become a consultant,’ so I created Dry Creek Group,” Wittman said. “Clients come to me with their challenges, and I give them marketing solutions based on my experiences. I have resources all over the world to help me, and they are all outstanding marketing professionals.”
“I didn’t want to build a big company; my wife and I are the company,” he added. “I had a staff of 2,000 when I retired from Disney. No interest in doing that again.”
While he’s happy to not travel as much as he used to, he still enjoys visiting Ashland.
“I’ve probably been back to Ashland about a dozen times,” Wittman said. “I like to take a drive through campus. It’s changed for the better. It’s really impressive how the school has grown and the great job the administration has done to grow it.”
Seeing his fraternity house is one of the highlights of his drives through campus. He belonged to the Theta-Nu chapter of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity.
“Being in the fraternity was just so important for me,” Wittman said. “It was so much more than partying and craziness. It was giving back to the community and the brotherhood. I learned how to live in a house with 40 guys. Kappa Sigma taught me how to get along with a diverse group of people and personalities.
“The friends I made in the fraternity house are still some of my best friends,” added Wittman, who was recently awarded one of the highest honors from the national Kappa Sigma Fraternity – the U.S. Sen. John G. Tower Distinguished Alumni Award.
According to a news release from the national fraternity, the award honors “Kappa Sigma brothers who have shown a commitment to their business, family, church, philanthropy and community activities.” Tower, a U.S. senator from Texas, served on the Kappa Sigma Supreme Executive Committee for six years and was worthy grand master from 1971-73.
Wittman and his wife are actively involved with special projects for many organizations in Western New York, including Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Catholic Health Mercy Hospital.
Among the many accomplishments Wittman was a part of during his Disney career, he said it’s hard to choose just one as his favorite.
“The highlights there were so many. I really got to do amazing things every day,” Wittman said. “One claim to fame is I came up with the idea to build a swimming pool on Main Street (U.S.A. Disneyland) that (Olympic swimmer) Michael Phelps swam down right after he returned to the U.S. after winning six gold medals in Athens, Greece (in 2004). It received TV coverage all over the world and is today considered one of Disney’s most successful marketing stunts.”
Because he was happy with one of his first jobs after college, a marketing position with Marriott for a theme park in Chicago it owned, Wittman said he turned down offers from Disney three times.
He’s glad he finally accepted Disney’s offer because his nearly 30 years with the growing company was as thrilling as one of its most popular rides, Space Mountain.
“We were in a big growth time at Disney,” Wittman said. “Every day was about growing bigger and getting better. That was pretty incredible. It was a great brand. You did great things and big things every day. Disney was a great brand that was a $5 billion company when I started and was a $175 billion company when I left - $170 billion of growth. A lot of learning comes with that much growth.”