* Claude Coats; Retired Disney Designer

A memorial service will be held Friday for Claude Coats, a 54-year employee of the Walt Disney Co. who worked as a background artist and later as a designer on several Disney theme park attractions. He was 78.

Coats, a longtime Burbank resident, died Jan. 9 in a Burbank hospital of cancer, said his son, Alan of Venice.

Born in San Francisco, Coats earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from USC and studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. He started with the Walt Disney Co. in 1935 as a background painter and worked on several film classics, including “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Fantasia” and “Peter Pan.”

In 1955, Coats went to work for WED Enterprises, now called Walt Disney Imagineering, which oversees the creation of Disney theme parks. Coats helped design several Disneyland attractions, including “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Haunted Mansion” and “Submarine Voyage,” in addition to helping create several attractions for the EPCOT Center and Tokyo Disneyland. He retired in 1989.

In October, Coats was presented with a bronze Disney Legends Award, and his handprints and signature were placed in concrete outside the Disney Studio Theater on the Burbank movie lot.

In addition to his son, Coats is survived by his wife of 54 years, Evie Coats; a son, Lee Coats of Trabuco Canyon, and six grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for 1 p.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church of Burbank, 700 N. Glenoaks Blvd. Donations can be made in Coats’ name to a charity of the donor’s choice.