C. V. Wood

Cornelius Vanderbilt Wood (December 17, 1920 – March 14, 1992), usually written as "C. V. Wood" and called "Woody", was an American developer of amusement parks and planned communities. He is most noted as the chief developer of Disneyland.

Disney

Wood, who had earlier been director of industrial engineering for an aircraft manufacturer in his native Texas, was hired away from his position at the Stanford Research Institute by Walt Disney to become vice president and general manager of Disney's nascent project, Disneyland. He was a key player in the design and creation of the amusement park, and the person most responsible for choosing its site.

Wood and Disney later had a falling out and Disney fired Wood. Wood's role in the creation of Disneyland has been omitted from all official histories of the park. Bob Gurr, when asked to describe Wood, stated, "He was clearly a con man and certainly behaved that way."

Other parks

Wood went on to design more amusement parks; he billed himself as "The Master Planner of Disneyland" before a Disney lawsuit stopped him from using that title. Wood, leading his firm known as Marco Engineering, Inc., helped create Magic Mountain (now Heritage Square at Golden, Colorado) in 1957, Pleasure Island (in Wakefield, Massachusetts) in 1959, Freedomland U.S.A. (on the current site of Co-op City in the Bronx), in 1960, and initial work on Six Flags Over Texas before work was taken over by Marco member Randall Duell. None of the first three amusement parks lasted longer than a few years before closing. In 1991, Wood, who had become president of the Recreation Enterprises Division of Warner Bros., played an instrumental role in the design and development of Warner Bros. Movie World theme park in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, capping a noted theme park creating career.

Wood was also the chief designer for Lake Havasu City. The city's CV Wood Aquatic Center is named for him.

Personal life

Wood was the winner of the International Chili Society's 1969 Annual World's Championship Chili Cookoff and had a small part in the B movie Miami Supercops.

Wood was taught Transcendental Meditation by Nancy Cooke de Herrera in the late 1960s.