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Ron Husband retired after 38 years of employment with the Walt Disney Company. He joined Feature Animation in 1975 as an animation trainee. Ron holds the distinction of being the first African American animator & 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.Art Sample0001_web.

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 3-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.