Realityland's David Koenig

This past week, we lost two former Disneyland cast members, who absolutely adored the place—Earl Archer and Ken Eslick.

Earl, who died Saturday August 11, worked in Operations from 1956 until 1982, on darn near every attraction you could imagine, from Space Station X1 to the Flying Saucers and beyond. But he's best remembered as "Mr. Treehouse" of the Swiss Family Treehouse, where he logged countless hours whistling the "Swisskapolka" and wearing his tiny beret in an askew manner that defied gravity.

His enthusiasm for Walt's house was boundless and over the years, Earl shared literally hundreds of tales with me from his glory days. But one thing I never asked about: what was the deal with the clam chowder in the dark corners of Inner Space? (See "Mouse Tales" for the full story.)

His only greater passion was his dear wife, Katy, who contracted Alzheimer's and Earl patiently, with a smile, tended to in her final years. When Katy left us, I suspected Earl would not be far behind.

Ken's career at Disneyland, in Security and Custodial during the 1970s and again in late '80s/early '90s, was shorter, but he left his mark throughout the Disney community primarily after he hung up his nametag. He wrote the Disneyland Postcard blog and maintained disneylandpostcards.net.

Even more, he was a warm, wonderful person, who made a point of seeking me out at every NFFC show, just to chat.

I'll miss them both.