’77 Hawk Profile
Susan Gray Clippinger
clippy@earthlink.net
Hello everyone!
I’m Susan Gray Clippinger from Daytona Beach. Yup, one of the few natives left!
What have I been
doing since 1977? Where do I begin? Right after graduation, I moved
to Orlando and started working for Walt Disney World, starting
in the park running rides in Tomorrowland.
Remember “If You Had Wings?” After about 10 years with WDW, I moved
to another part of the company called Walt Disney Imagineering. This was
the group that developed all the rides and shows for the parks. It was a
fun area and we got to wear jeans and t-shirts to work! No more of
those goofy costumes (no pun intended). I spent a total of 17 years
there before I got laid off. Of course, I was devastated, but it turns
out that it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I started
working for a guy who used to work at WDI as a lead designer and he was
starting his own company, called Bob Weis Design Island. He was going to be doing similar work that I
was used to and near the beach in New Smyrna. So, back to the beach I
went. I worked for him for about 1 ½ years until he closed his company
and moved to California. So, unemployed again, I went to Universal Studios
and worked on the park called Islands of Adventure. I was there until the
park opened in 1999 and then.... got laid off again. No, it doesn’t get
any easier, but God is good and he always opens doors.
After several little
jobs here and there, in 2000, the New Smyrna guy came back from California and opened his office again, here in Orlando. In between some of this, I spent another 18
months at Universal Studios producing the new attraction Shrek
4D and Jimmy Neutron’s Adventure, but for the most part I’ve been working with Bob Weis Design Island, where I am a Project Manager.
I got married in 1997
to a wonderful guy named David, that I met while at
Disney. David is a marine biologist and owns his own company building
custom aquariums and water gardens. We live on 2 ½ acres in Kissimmee and have a yellow lab, named Riley. We are both
very active in our local church here in Kissimmee where David sings in the
praise team and I help with sound, powerpoint
presentations, drama and other behind the scenes things.
I’m looking forward
to seeing everyone in July and keeping in touch!
Susan
(Posted 03-23-2007)
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