Yale Wilbur Gracey (September 3, 1910 – September 5, 1983) was aDisney Imagineer, writer, and layout artist for many Disney animated shorts, including classics such asThe Three Caballeros andFantasia. Gracey joined the company in 1939 as a layout artist forPinocchio. In the 1960s, he designed many of the special effects for thePirates of the Caribbean andHaunted Mansion attractions atDisneyland. Among these was a fire effect, developed forPirates 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 ofCharles G. Yale, businessman and club man, Secretary of theSan 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 SenatorBroderick's case, as well as withSalvador Vallejo, brother of Gen.Vallejo.^[6]

He was in partnership under Yale & McConnell, with Attorney General of CaliforniaJohn R. McConnell, and sat on committees with CongressmanThompson Campbell, SenatorJohn S. Hager, CongressmanJoseph P. Hoge, and at events with Gov.John B. Weller.^[7][8][9] He defended the Vice President of theRepublic of Lower California, Col. Watkins, with Gov.Henry S. Foote, and Yale was involved himself in aduel 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 ofFrank Turk, a pioneer of the city ofSan Francisco.^[15] His great-uncle, Frank Willey Yale (1854), was married to Fannie Amelia Bleecker, granddaughter of Major generalLeonard Bleecker, a member of theBleecker family ofBleecker Street, New York, and cofounder of theNew York Stock Exchange through theButtonwood Agreement.^[16][17]

Gracey's parents were Enid Yale (1884-1968) and Wilbur Tirrell Gracey (1877-1946).^[18] His father was aUS Marshal anddiplomat 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 theCivil War as the chaplain for6th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment ("Rush's Lancers"), 1st DivisionCavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment.^[19]

In 1946, 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 theBel 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 atIMDb

• 1910 births
• 1983 deaths
• People murdered in 1983
• 1983 murders in the United States
• 20th-century American writers
• 20th-century American male writers
• 20th-century American artists
• 20th-century American male artists
• Walt Disney Animation Studios people
• Disney imagineers
• Deaths by firearm in California
• People murdered in Los Angeles
• American expatriates in China
• Yale family
• American special effects people

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