Bill Cotter

Bill Cotter first visited the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair at the impressionable age of 12, and what an impression it made! Crediting the fair for having sparked his interest in technology, his first job after college was as a submarine designer for the US Navy, working on the Polaris-Poseidon-Trident guidance and launch systems. His submarine work led directly to a new challenge at The Walt Disney Company. While most theme park visitors never think much about the technology behind their visits, Disney had realized the importance of these systems and decided the company needed to instill the philosophy that “No one will be hurt on a ride or steal from the company using a computer.” Bill was hired to launch this initiative by setting up its initial computer security and contributing to the designs for several major computer-controlled attractions. He was also able to pursue his interest in world’s fairs by visiting several of them as he crisscrossed the country for Disney and later traveled the world for Warner Bros. and Universal studios. Bill retired as a Senior Vice President of Information Systems for Bank of America.

Bill has written extensively about world’s fairs, with his twelfth volume just completed, illustrating the books with pictures from his extensive library of photos. His collection is believed to be the largest private holding of photographic images of world’s fairs. He has contributed to dozens of books and documentaries and served as a consultant on several movies including “Iron Man 2” and Disney’s “Tomorrow-Land” for their world’s fair segments.

Bill was the featured speaker at the celebrations in New York for the 50th anniversary of the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, where he gave two sold-out speeches, and he was the lead-off speaker for Disney’s D23 celebration of the fair held at Walt Disney World. Bill is also the author of a comprehensive history of Disney television and other entertainment projects.

Bill operates two websites devoted to the study of world’s fairs – worldsfairphotos.com and worldsfaircommunity.org. He enjoys working with his fellow fans to document these lost expositions and to develop proposals for future events. In his spare time he is an active volunteer with the Los Angeles Police Department.