General Information:

Media Type: Book
Type: Other
Release Date: 2013-09-17

Geek's Thoughts: Roy E. Disney was the son of Roy O. Disney and nephew of Walt Disney. He was born in January 1930 and passed away in December 2009. David Bossert brings us a look at Roy E. Disney from the perspective of his friends. David has a running narrative throughout the book that sets the stories up and keeps the book moving and then he features stories/memories of Roy from others in their own words. This is not a biography of Roy, but a set of stories told by his friends to give you a look at who Roy was and examples of how he interacted with them. It is not a comprehensive book, the main focus is from the 1990s onward with a few references as stories pre-dating that time.

 

I really enjoyed reading through this book and learning more about Roy from those that knew him best. He was an interesting person who lived up to the name (and expectations) of Disney. He was a champion for Disney quality and his name and was not afraid to go to extremes to protect it as he showed twice resigning from the company and working to bring in new leadership.

As I read through the book the one chapter that I found really interesting was the Air Roy chapter that discussed his love of flying. He had a pilots license at age 16 but agreed to become a passenger as life went on. The chapter discussed what it was like to fly with Roy aboard his private planes. The last of which was a 737.

If you are interested in gaining a fuller picture of Roy Disney this book should be on your must read list. It lets you into his inner circle of friends and what they thought of him and what they remember about their time with Roy over the years. It also gives a little perspective on some chapters of the Walt Disney Company history as well since Roy and the Company had a long and intertwined history.