Roy O. Disney

Roy Oliver Disney was, with his younger brother Walter Disney, the co-founder of what is now The Walt Disney Company. After Walt died, Roy became the chairman of the company. Roy served as the company’s chief executive officer ? though title name was not given until 1968 ? president, and chairman. Roy was born to Irish-Canadian Elias Disney and German-American Flora Call Disney in Chicago, Illinois. He was married to Edna Francis from April 1925 until his death; their only child was Roy Edward Disney, who was born on January 10, 1930. Roy and his brother Walt ordered and built kit homes from Pacific Ready Cut Homes and in 1928, they built their homes side-by-side on Lyric Avenue. Their homes were slightly customized and enlarged, and do not exactly match the original homes featured in the Pacific Ready Cut Homes catalogs.

While Walt was the creative man, Roy was the one who made sure the company was financially stable; Roy and Walt both founded Disney Studios as brothers, but Walt would buy out most of Roy’s share in 1929 and, unlike Max and Dave Fleischer of rival Fleischer Studios, was not a producer.

After Walter Disney’s death in 1966, Roy postponed his retirement to oversee construction of what was then known as Disney World, and later renamed it Walt Disney World as a tribute to his brother.