The Audience Was Different Back Then, Too.
Disney parks didn’t have tens of thousands, let alone hundreds of thousands, of annual passholders, smartened up with too much behind-the-scenes knowledge via television shows, books, magazine articles, and websites.

You were more likely to visit Disneyland once in a while, and do so with the married man and woman who conceived you, carried you, gave birth to you, and were raising you. You were less likely to be visiting the park with your egg donor, surrogate mother, and custodial third stepfather, dropping off your cloned puppy at the kennel. You don't need a Pixar feature to point out that kids are losing their childhood at an earlier age. Adolescence is starting earlier and ending later. Kids are exposed to so much more now than they ever used to be, and they're losing their fantasies and imaginary lives.

Fans, critics, guests, cast members, and employees did not flock to Internet/Usenet/World Wide Web chat rooms, message boards, newsgroups, e-mail groups, and web pages to dish on the dirt, flaws, accidents, blunders, mistakes, failures, take-aways, backstage politics, cast member eatery price increases and portion decreases, rumors, upcoming projects, etc. I'd first find out about a new ride when construction began, and even then it might be a long time before I got any idea of what the ride was going to be like. Sometimes, you had no idea until you actually rode it. I didn't have any idea if there had been cutbacks, or what better ideas had been tossed around before the lesser project was picked for construction.

I don't think I'd ever know there was anything I was supposed to hate about a Disneyland President.

Ah, yes…finally, I've arrived at what I really wanted to talk about: The President of the Disneyland Resort. To a kid who experiences Disneyland as the magical Happiest Place on Earth, such a position would seem to be the best job ever. I mean, that couldn't even really be a job, could it? It would be like playing all day and night and getting paid for it. The President probably sleeps inside Disneyland, maybe inside the castle, just like the teacher must sleep at school. Being Disneyland President would be better than being an ice-cream tester, a firefighter, an airplane pilot, or James Taft Kirk, Captain of the Enterprise.

In their innocent way of thinking, children don't know what such a position really is like.

A Little Trivia
As far as I can tell, there have only been four people with the title of Disneyland President: C.V. Wood, Jack Lindquist, Paul Pressler, and current President Cynthia Harriss. Whether or not C.V. Wood actually held the tile of "President of Disneyland" depends on which source you consult.

I've long had the understanding that he was the first person to hold that title, way back when Disneyland opened in 1955. As the story goes, Wood had played a significant role (how significant is debated) in actually getting Disneyland built via his work with the Stanford Research Institute, and then held the President position for the first half-year of operation before some sort of clash with Walt Disney prompted him to move on.

Disneyland became part of Walt Disney Productions at a later time, and Walt Disney Productions didn’t have an extensive formalized title structure. As a result, it appears that nobody held the tile of "President of Disneyland" for decades. Ron Dominguez, who actually lived on what became part of the Disneyland property, stayed with the company for decades, but apparently never held the title, despite having a position of high authority. Dick Nunis, who would eventually retire from Disney as Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, never had the specific title of President of Disneyland.

It wasn't until the late 1980s (heck, it might have been 1990) that Jack Lindquist was promoted to the title of President of Disneyland. Titles were popping up all over the place as Michael Eisner, Frank Wells, and those they'd brought with them to Disney brought a new corporate culture. In late 1993, during a celebration of Mickey's 65th birthday, Jack publicly announced his retirement. The long-time Disneylander was replaced by Paul Pressler, who had come to Disney from an outside company and had overseen the tremendous growth of the Disney Store. Paul brought in fellow Disney Store executive Cynthia Harriss, who served as a Vice-President of Disneyland Park.

At the end of 1998, when Paul was promoted to President of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, there was no President of the Disneyland Resort for about a year, at which time Cynthia, who had essentially had that position since Paul was promoted, was named at the first female President of the Disneyland Resort.