The park achieved a kind of reality. Like these virtual reality games the children are playing with. I told them we were doing this 40 years ago! Disneyland is virtual reality.

Hench died of heart failure in early 2004 after a brief hospitalization in Burbank California. Hench continued to maintain an office at Walt Disney Imagineering headquarters in Glendale California and worked there daily up until a few weeks before his death. Starting in 1939 as a story artist he weaved his way through the animation department working in areas including backgrounds layout and art direction effects animation and special effects.

Because of his resemblance to Walt Disney and his frequent visits to Disney theme parks he was often asked to sign autographs and pose for pictures with park visitors who mistook Hench for Disney himself. In an interview one runner mentioned that carrying the torch under the bowl made more sense than at the distal length. His name tag and 65-year service award are prominently displayed in the building's lobby and tributes by fellow Imagineers line its hallways.