This man created one of my all time favorite franchises: Thomas the Tank Engine.
I view him as a hero because he knew who his audience was & didn’t want to talk down to kids because he knew they were smarter than anyone realized, not to mention he knew that the adults would be reading/watching his stories with their kids.
“You’re not merely writing for children, your writing for the unfortunate people who’ve got to read the stories over, and over, and over again.” -Rev. Wilbert Awdry
He even made a lore book that delved into the history of his fictional island & how it intermixes with real history, both World Wars & a battle between the real life King Godred & thousands of Normans that ended with a blood-bath massacre of the Normans happened in a world of talking trains within a children’s book series! If that isn’t passion for what you do, I don’t know what is.