McRivet

A couple of months back as part of an article I was working on for Celebrations Magazine, I had the extreme pleasure of being able to talk a personal hero of mine, George F. McGinnis. Most widely remembered for the creation of Horizons, but on this day we chatted about 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Submarine Voyage.

While most of the interview made it into the article, here are a few wonderful moments that I thought I wanted to share with all of you!

Main Street Gazette: What type of limitations did the submarines' designs face?

George McGinnis: As concept designer I had no limitations placed on me. But near the end of my effort, I heard a clue to my doing too much detail. Dick Irvine President of WED hailed me in the hall one day, "McGinnis are you 'glossing the goose' over there.” Meaning over at Roger Broggie's Engineering where Bob Gurr and I had our offices. Apparently Roger had been talking with Dick. ;) When I finished with the design, the project was handed to Bob to do the field supervision in Florida during construction . I was new and had no experience with field work. I made one trip to Florida on the subs to explain my drawings on rivet layout.

Thereafter I was called McRivet. ;)

George McGinnis (discussing how he felt about the design, and the fiberglas model made his design): I asked my boss Roger Broggie if I could have the model and heard the loudest NO! ever heard from him. ;)

He was Walt's "can-do man" -- all business around the office, but fun to travel with.

I cannot begin to explain how extraordinary it was to speak with George McGinnis, I'm sorry, McRivet, but it is a memory I will hold for a very long time and, hopefully, I will have the honor to speak with him again down the line.

I'll be sure to let all of you know when the rest of the interview, along with the entire 20,000 Leagues article, runs in Celebrations!