In 2013, Ron Husband retired after 38 years of employment with the Walt Disney Company. Ron holds the distinction of being the first African American supervising animator for Walt Disney Studios. Ron supervised the animation on Esmeralda’s feisty sidekick, Djali, in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the elk in “The Firebird Suite” segment of Fantasia 2000, and Dr. Sweet in the full length feature, Atlantis”, which was released in the summer of 2001.
Prior to joining The Walt Disney Company, Ron worked for Honeywell in West Covina, CA where he cultivated drafting projects as well as technical illustrations. During that time, he took classes at the Art Center in Los Angeles, where one of his professors encouraged him to submit his portfolio to Disney’s growing animation department.
Ron’s professional career took off during his tenure with The Walt Disney Company. He received an AA Degree in Art from Citrus College, Glendora, CA and his Bachelor of Art degree in 1973 from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has taught animation drawing workshops at Cal Arts in Valencia, California; Atlanta, Georgia and as far away as Sydney, Australia. He participated in a workshop in New Orleans, LA where he was the guest instructor for a 2-week course in character animation and has taught a class on “Humorous Illustration” at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California. Ron also has taught Gesture Drawing at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Hollywood, CA.
Other Walt Disney Pictures’ screen credits include The Small One, The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver & Company, The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, can i buy viagra over the counter uk Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Fantasia 2000, the re-release of Beauty and the Beast in IMAX format and Treasure Planet released in 2002 where he animated Long John Silver.
Other screen credits include Loneytoons- Back In Action (Warner Bros.) The Heffalump Movie from Disney and Warner Bros. Fat Albert, The Movie. In addition, he received screen credit for the animation of the cool cat in “Opposites Attract,” a Paula Abdul music video and has illustrated numerous children’s books and magazines.
From 1991 to 1996, he was a featured speaker at the Black FilmMakers Hall of Fame in Oakland, California. In 1968 Ron was awarded the National Achievement in Art Scholastic Award. He has received awards from the Second Baptist Church of Monrovia as Father of the Year in 1979, Teacher of the Year in 1993 and Man of the Year in June of 2007 and June of 1998. Ron was most recently awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center (BHERC) at its 17th Annual African American Film Marketplace and S.E. Manley Short Film Showcase on December 10, 2010.
Ron was born and raised in Monrovia, CA. In February 2007 he received first place for his pen and ink illustration “Baptism” at the Hillcrest Fine Arts Festival in La Habra Heights, California and was named “Best New Artist of the Show at the Monrovia Arts Festival in 2006. He currently resides in San Dimas, California. Ron is married to LaVonne, his wife of 41 years. They have three adult children and he is fondly known as “Grampy “ to his three, beautiful, granddaughters.