 Randy
Forgaard, Chief Illusioneer at Illusionator, has loved
engineering, entertainment, and entrepreneurship for as long as he can
remember. Randy was co-founder, with Charles H. Ferguson, and
chief technology officer of Vermeer Technologies, the company that
created Microsoft FrontPage, and holds bachelors and masters degrees in
computer science from MIT. A magician for 35 years, Randy is a Member of the Inner Magic Circle (London),
is a lifetime member of the Society of American Magicians, co-authored
Magician Pocket Mirrors with Burton S. Sperber (A Real Miracle
Series, 2003), and has perhaps the largest collection in the arcane but
historically engaging collecting field of magician tokens (coins issued
by and for magicians). Since first visiting Disneyland's Haunted
Mansion attraction in 1970 at age 11, Randy has been a devoted fan of
the Haunted Mansion itself (with countless visits to Disneyland and Walt
Disney World and more recently to Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris) and
of the entertainment potential of haunting in general. Since 2002,
he has been a section head at the annual Hollis Upper Elementary School
Haunted House of Hollis, New Hampshire, blending illusion and dread with
increasingly detailed, elaborate, and appreciatively frightful results.
At Illusionator, Randy brings his haunting, magic, and engineering
expertise to the enjoyable and fascinating task of haunt illusion design
and electronic control. He is also the Illusionator webmaster and
graphic designer. |
 |
 Ken
Dobson is Master Illusioneer at Illusionator, and is also
jokingly known as "the guy who sits in the corner." A man of many
talents who needs little sleep, Ken is constantly creating, and can
nearly always be found inventing in the Illusionator workshop, at the
whiteboard, or with CAD drawings on his computer. Ken was one of
the original software engineers behind Timeslips, the well-known
time-tracking and billing program for consultants, and studied computer
science at Syracuse University and UMass Amherst. Ken later went
on to be a key architect at IntelliLink and later Puma Technology,
inventing data synchronization technologies and personally writing
software that resides in many cell phones, pagers and other
handheld devices used today. Ken has a lifetime of experience in
performance and entertainment, as a thespian, clown, and organizer of
professional live-action role playing events. An experienced
haunter, Ken has been a key inventor, builder, actor, and haunt overseer
at the annual Hollis Upper Elementary School Haunted House of Hollis,
New Hampshire since 2002. Ken is a craftsman, the author of the Illusionator wall system
construction plans, and a tireless prototyper and production builder, with more exciting haunted creations
always on the drawing board. Sweating the details and walking the
delicate balance between engineering elegance and commercial
buildability, Ken brings his strong experience in software modularity to
his flexible product designs for professional haunters. |
