Joseph W. Fowler, 99, Navy Rear Admiral, Disney Executive, Dies

Joseph W. Fowler, a retired Navy rear admiral whose nautical expertise ranged from World War II ships and submarines to the replica fleet at Disneyland, has died in Florida, it was learned over the weekend.

A spokesman for Woodlawn Memorial Park and Funeral Home in Orlando said Fowler had died in that city on Dec. 3 at age 99.

A 1917 graduate of the Naval Academy with a graduate degree in naval architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fowler was on tour in Shanghai in the mid-1920s when he designed and built the famous gunboat Panay, later sunk by the Japanese before World War II.

He later became commanding officer of the San Francisco Naval Shipyard, supervising the building of the Kaiser fleet of cargo ships that helped produce seagoing superiority over the Axis powers.

He retired in 1948 but was called back to active duty during the Korean War and then later was named civilian director of the Federal Supply Management Agency.

In 1954, Walt Disney hired him to direct much of the construction at Disneyland, which was to open a year later. He had direct involvement in the construction of the Mark Twain and Columbia, sailing vessels that carried park-goers around the extensive waterways of the amusement attraction.

Disney, who became a close friend, referred to the dry dock that the ships utilized as “Joe’s Ditch.”

Fowler was named a Disney vice president in 1961 and senior vice president in 1969, and he helped find the site for Disney World in Orlando. He retired in 1978.

Survivors include a son, sister, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.