BYU NewsNet - Former Animation Professor Dies from Leukemia

John Ahern, animator for Walt Disney and Hanna-Barbera, died Wednesday, Oct. 29, after a long battle with leukemia. His funeral was Monday.

Ahern taught at BYU for a year, after retiring from nearly 50 years working in an illustrious animation career.

Kelly Loosli, director of curriculum for the animation program at BYU, said Ahern was an amazing person. He said while John taught here he gave students the perspective that an animation career is possible.

"Students liked him so much because John liked to reminisce," Loosli said. "His stories were absolutely fantastic." He said Ahern personally knew Walt Disney and animation directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who started the animation studio Hanna-Barbera.

"Students loved those things," Loosli said, of the stories Ahern told. "John wasn't a name-dropper, he just talked about these people like he was talking about his neighbor. He knew all these people that, for many of us, are our idols."

He started at The Walt Disney Company in 1955. There he worked on classics such as "Lady and the Tramp," "Sleeping Beauty," "101 Dalmatians," "The Jungle Book," "The Sword in the Stone" and "The AristoCats." He also helped with designs for Walt Disney's first theme park, Disneyland.

Ahern also worked at Hanna-Barbera, where he headed production aspects of 14 different television shows including "The Flintstones," "Scooby Doo" and "Tom and Jerry."

In his memorable career he earned many awards, including an Emmy for the production of "Muppet Babies."

Grenade Curran, Ahern's cousin, started working with him at The Walt Disney Company on live action films. He said to have Ahern come to teach animation classes at BYU was really something.

"John recognized good drawing and talent in people," Curran said. "That's why he did so well with the students, always emphasizing to any 'learn to draw.' If you want to go into the art field, learn to draw."

Curran said one of Ahern's greatest traits was his tremendous sense of humor and ability to recognize comedy situations in everyday life, which helped with his career.

"A lot of artists going into a field can be a tremendous artist with no personality," Curran said. "John was able to have creative design and understand humor. This helped him design characters such as Templeton the Rat in 'Charlotte's Web' and the dog on 'Scooby Doo.'"

In a recently published article in The Daily Universe, Ahern was interviewed about the success of the animation program at BYU.

"They're doing some interesting things, and I think it's on the verge of doing very well," Ahern said. "When they get through, I think BYU will be the number one animation school in the world."

Curran said many of the awards BYU has won are because of things Ahern instituted while teaching at BYU.

Loosli explained that when Ahern was in the hospital, he was tired of talking about cancer and just wanted to talk about animation. So Loosli asked animation students to produce some artwork as a get-well present for Ahern. Loosli delivered the stack of drawings and said Ahern was really excited to receive them and talk about animation.

barbsdailyuniverse@yahoo.com