Creator of Disneyland’s Columbia Dies at 81

Raymond E. Wallace, an architect and yachtsman who helped create San Diego’s Seaport Village and Disneyland’s sailing ship Columbia, died April 16 in San Pedro. He was 81.

The native of Los Angeles devoted as much passion to sailing as to designing and married both interests by fashioning seaside restaurants and shopping areas and floating theme-park rides.

He also worked as an artist and illustrator for Copley Newspapers, the Los Angeles Daily News, the Honolulu Advertiser and Northrop Aircraft. He established Raymond E. Wallace Special Productions in San Pedro, where he designed vessels for Universal Florida and Disney Sea Tokyo.

His seaside complexes included not only Sea Port Village but also the Long Beach Shoreline shopping village. His first theme park creation was Disneyland’s majestic square-rigger Columbia.

The boat was in the news recently after the Christmas Eve death of a Disneyland visitor who was struck in the face when a cleat ripped free from the boat, an accident blamed in part on an inadequately trained employee.

On the sea, Wallace explored the Pacific as a Sea Scout in his teens, served in the Coast Guard during World War II and later was an officer in several yacht clubs and a board member of the Los Angeles Maritime Museum. He participated in many transpacific and transatlantic sailing races.