Jerry Izsak grew up in Canada. Both of his grand parents immigrated from Hungry in 1902. He went to school in Toronto.
Jerry was 25 years old when he moved to America. He moved to Tampa. He later moved to California and saw an ad for Disney who was hiring. He met his wife Marta at a party of one of his Disney architect friends.
Disney then moved Jerry to Florida which is where he worked on designing and building Walt Disney World. He helped design Main Street. Marta was working on Adventure Land.
As an architect, they helped with the theme park design. Work wasn’t that hectic. It was a fun time. You couldn’t have a mustache. Eventually they changed that policy. Disney was a fun time in both of their careers. In Florida Jerry worked for Disney for 20 years. His entire Disney career was 30 years part in California, France, England.
Marta was also an architect. In Florida she also got a job at Disney so they had cubicles right near each other. She learned Auto Cad. Though she liked hand drafting she saw the advantaged of Auto Cad for quick changes.
They purchased a property north of Disney and build a custom house which they designed and built themselves. The house took two years to build and everything was paid for in cash. When they got a paycheck, they went to home Depot and bought some 2 by 4s and got to work. They were in a pop up camper while the house was being built. They then brought an adjourning property and they build a second home which they now live in.
On the day this interview as conducted, The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. I remember wanting to only bump elbows with Jerry and Marta. Jerry bumped elbows but Marta insisted on shaking hands. Out of politeness and habit I shook her hand. I was already carrying hand sanitizer for just such an occurrence. I’m thankful we all spoke on the open air back porch of their home. It was a beautiful day with birds chirping and the start of a new normal for us all.