Biography | Donn Tatum — The First Non-Family Chairman Elected on This Lot

People treat the jump from Roy O. Disney to a lawyer as a shock that landed without a plan.

Tatum had served as president before succeeding Roy O. Disney.

Roy died on 20 December 1971, two months after Walt Disney World opened. Three days later the board elected Tatum chairman and chief executive officer.

Long Beach's Independent carried the UPI bulletin on 29 December. Broadcasting's 13 March 1972 career box dates the election to 23 December 1971 and pins the office to Burbank.

He was the first person outside the Disney family to hold those titles. Card Walker moved up to president underneath him.

The work that followed was not a founding. It was keeping a studio, a California park, and a new Florida resort under one balance sheet after both brothers were gone.

Tatum remained chief executive until November 1976 and chairman until 3 June 1980, when Walker took the gavel. He stayed on the board, chaired the executive committee, and was named director emeritus in 1992.

He died of cancer on 31 May 1993 at his home in Pacific Palisades. The house is private. The studio was the company's Burbank base; this does not identify the particular boardroom in which the election took place.

Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, in the Los Angeles Times notice, called him a scholar and an exemplary leader. The company named him a Disney Legend the same year.

Source: [Disney biography](https://d23.com/walt-disney-legend/donn-tatum/).

Photo: State Archives of Florida, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.