Sharon Mae Disney Lund was an American philanthropist and the adopted daughter of Walt and Lillian Disney.
Sharon was born in November of 1936. At six weeks old, Walt and Lillian adopted her on December 31. She used that as her birthdate throughout her life. Though Walt's fame had built up over the years, she and her older sister Diane retained very private lives. As she said in a 1992 interview with Forbes magazine; "We were never raised with the idea that my father was a great man. He was Daddy. He went to work every morning. He came home every night." Both girls enjoyed outings with their father to the Griffith Park Carousel or other research trips as well as spending weekends riding their bikes at The Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank while their dad worked. She did, however, make rare on-camera appearances in the special One Hour in Wonderland and a minor role in Johnny Tremain.
In 1959, Sharon married her first husband, Robert B. Brown, an interior designer. Though not known for being active in the family business, in 1965, Sharon became a founder, co-owner and officer of Retlaw Enterprises, a successor to the corporation her father organized in 1952 for certain personal business ventures such Walt Disney Imagineering. The following year, she gave birth to her daughter, Victoria, but her husband passed away soon after. She later married Bill Lund with whom she had twins, Brad and Michelle. Lund would serve as a construction consultant for "The Florida Project" which would eventually blossom into Walt Disney World Resort. She and Lund, however, would formally divorce in 1978.
In 1973, she founded the Sharon D. Lund Foundation, a charitable organization to support initiatives in the arts, health and wellness, human services, and higher education for the future of children. In 1984, Sharon was elected to the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company and remained so for the remainder of her life. She was also a trustee for CalArts, the school in Valencia that was originally funded by her family while also contributing to charities such, as the Marianne Frostig Center of Educational Therapy, a school for children with learning disabilities, the Curtis School Foundation and the Music Center, and, along with her family, contributed nearly $100 million for construction of the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
She died on February 16, 1993 at St. John's Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, California from complications of breast cancer. She was survived by her children, her mother, and sister.
Legacy[]
Her daughter, Victoria, died in 2002. Like her mother, a foundation in her own name donates organizations such as the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, the Healthy Kids program at Arthur M. Hamilton Elementary School, the Boys and Girls Club of Phoenix, and The Parkinson's Disease Foundation.
Her twins Brad and Michelle continue to run the Sharon D. Lund Foundation, which has provided grants to various organizations and projects working in its focus areas. In 2015, CalArts named its school of dance "The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance" following a gift of $11 million from the foundation in her honor.
Gallery[]
Bottom: Diane Disney Miller, Lillian Disney, Sharon Disney Lund
