He worked with Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny.

Ralph Heimdahl was born in Willmar in 1909 and attended St. Cloud State University when it was a teacher’s college.

“I think Ralph has sort of been forgotten a bit,” SCSU Archivist Tom Steman said.

After graduation, Heimdahl won a contest to work at Walt Disney Studios and taught at Disney’s animation school. He worked on classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo, and Fantasia.

Heimdahl was offered the Bugs Bunny newspaper comic strip and he would draw Bugs for more than three decades.

“He drew the comic strip from 1947 to 1978 and it was published in 400 newspapers and it was all over the world,” Steman said.

After his death in 1981 at the age of 72, Heimdahl’s family donated 5,000 of his drawings to St. Cloud State University.