Rocketing through the Guardians of the Galaxy ride at California Adventure, there’s no way to meet the mind that transformed what was once the Tower of Terror.

But if there were, you’d discover a being even more amazing than Groot — and Groot is definitely amazing.

At 63, Disney imagineer Joe Rohde is just getting warmed up and that says a lot about a man who fathered the company’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando, led the creation of Pandora — The World of Avatar.

In fact, if you’ve been to Tokyo DisneySea you probably already have met Rohde’s alter ego, pillager Harrison Hightower of the Hightower Hotel, a fellow who looks suspiciously like the Disney vice-president.

Yet Rohde is even more colorful than Hightower.

Disney imagineer Joe Rohde discusses the importance of connectedness with other cultures as well as nature at a meeting on June 22 with the Explorers Club at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. (Photo by David Whiting, Orange County Register/SCNG)

In this Saturday, April 29, 2017 photo, Joe Rohde, design and production leader for Pandora-World of Avatar land attraction, explains about the caverns and the meaning of the cave drawings of the Na’vi, the native inhabitants of the planet Pandora at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The 12-acre land, inspired by the Avatar movie, opens in Florida at the end of May at Walt Disney Worlds Animal Kingdom. It cost a half-billion dollars. (Photo by John Raoux, Associated Press)

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Jean-Michel Cousteau, famed oceanographer, points to the dangers of climate change during an Explorers Club meeting on June 22 at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. (Photo by David Whiting, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Disney imagineer Joe Rohde, whose earring honors some of the people and cultures he’s met and experienced during his global travels, discusses the importance of connectedness with other cultures as well as nature at a meeting on June 22 with the Explorers Club at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. (Photo by David Whiting, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Joe Rohde, Creative Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering, greets members of the media as they get a look at the new Guardians of the Galaxy- Mission Breakout! at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday, May 17, 2017. The ride, similar to The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror it replaced, gives the riders a sensation of free-falling as they site in a vehicles that drop randomly while doors open with new visual effects from the Guardians of the Galaxy universe. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Joe Rohde, Creative Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering, looks towards the new Guardians of the Galaxy- Mission Breakout! at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday, May 17, 2017. The ride, similar to The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror it replaced, gives the riders a sensation of free-falling as they site in a vehicles that drop randomly while doors open with new visual effects from the Guardians of the Galaxy universe. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Not only has Rohde explored far-flung places that most of us can only dream about — and in his own way brought them home — he wears an earring so weighted with artifacts from his travels that it’s stretched his left earlobe all the way to his jawline.

For an explanation of the earring’s ever-growing collection, Rohde shares he stuck his Disney five-year pin in his ear and never stopped.

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Yet the most interesting thing about Rohde is his ability to take us places that are not just thrilling. They offer food for the soul.

Scuba’s son

It is Saturday evening at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana and I am here for a meeting with the legendary Explorers Club.

How legendary? Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s son, Jean-Michel, is in one corner sharing his thoughts on the oceans and climate change.

Spoiler alert — things are bad and getting worse, fast.

“We must protect our species,” Cousteau states, “because we are the only species that has the capacity and the privilege not to disappear.”

Every drop of water we drink, says the 81-year-old oceanographer, environmentalist and film producer, is connected to the ocean.

Still, there is progress. Only a few days ago, he notes, several nations agreed to stop capturing whales so they could be put in pens for entertainment.

“Making whales become clowns in jail,” Cousteau declares with the passion of someone who swam countless times with the gentle giants, “has to be stopped.”

Although it’s a difficult statement to hear after decades of awareness — combined with decades of failure — it’s an important reminder how upside-down things have become since Cousteau’s father invented his self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.

Now, in an age in which the only way to grab global eyeballs seems to be through entertainment, it is people such as Rohde whose turn it is to save the planet — if not the galaxy.

Did I mention Rohde also was a lead designer for Disney’s Aulani resort in Hawaii and that it includes local traditions and culture stemming from his background growing up on the islands?

As a film producer at the Explorers Club meeting quips, “Thirty seconds with Joe is like drinking from a fire hydrant.”

You see, it’s not just creating extraordinary “lands” where Rohde makes a difference. His Animal Kingdom creation is credited with contributing more than $75 million to wildlife conservation.

“I want people to understand,” Rohde tells me, “the actual wonder of the actual world.”

Theme park novels

As we talk, Rohde explains the best way to connect with people is through storytelling, whether it’s on safari in Animal Kingdom or, yes, at Hightower Hotel.

Born in Sacramento, Rohde left Hawaii to attend Chaminade College Preparatory, a Catholic prep school in Canoga Park where, among other things, he studied drama. Next, he went on to earn his bachelor’s degree at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Then in 1980, his life changed forever.

That was the year he landed a job with Disney. At first, he painted scenes and built models at Epcot. But by the end of the decade, he’d worked on everything from refurbishing Fantasyland to working on the Captain EO attraction.

When Disney decided to build Animal Kingdom, Rohde’s considerable interests and talents merged into a magic elixir and, according to David Dolan, co-chairman of the Southern California Explorers Club chapter, raised the bar for theme parks.

“He’s educated hundreds of thousands of guests,” Dolan reports, “about the importance of caring for Planet Earth and all of its inhabitants.”

Rohde puts his mission as well as his vision in more philosophical terms. Think of a zoo as an encyclopedia, he suggests, and think of something like Animal Kingdom as a novel.

One doesn’t tell a story. The other does.

For example, when Rohde served as the principal creative designer for Animal Kingdom’s “Expedition Everest” ride he didn’t stop when he reached the top of the mountain.

At the base of the mini-Everest, there is a shrine that mirrors the outline of Everest.

For many Nepalese, the imagineer explains, Everest — otherwise known as Sagarmatha or Chomolungma — is sacred.

“You can create a profit and still do this,” Rohde says of offering more than just a thrill ride.

“Adventure,” says the Altadena resident, “is not just a physical challenge, but a mental challenge as well.”

Bringing it home

As we talk, Rohde and I slip into a discussion about the differences between entertainment and evangelism.

Rohde is quick to explain his job isn’t to preach, but to tell honest stories. When pressed for his internal beliefs, he humbly demurs, “I just work in the park business.”

But when it comes to climate change, Rohde doesn’t pull punches and echoes Cousteau, his Explorers Club colleague. “We run the planet now.

“Climate change is real.”

Rohde explains one of his goals is to allow people to visit places and cultures that they otherwise couldn’t afford to see in person.

In Florida’s Animal Kingdom, for example, visitors watch a herd of very real and very live elephants nuzzling one another — but they also see evidence of poaching and (fake) ivory tusks.

In Africa, both exist and that tension tells a story.

“Animals equal land,” he points out, “and land equals human decisions.”

Rohde asks, “What’s the value of an elephant?” But instead of answering, he allows others to make their own decision.

Similarly, in building the Everest ride and flying Tibetan prayer flags in a nearby mock Nepalese village, the Everest ride becomes more authentic — while also offering something deeper.

“The contemplation of the small,” Rohde explains, “is the contemplation of the vast.”

It’s an idea worth chewing on.