When Ron Husband was a football scholarship student at UNLV in the early 1970s, he was simply trying to get good enough at art to make a living. Professors like Rita Abbey helped him build a foundation of artistic knowledge that, when he moved back to his native Southern California, helped him land commercial illustration jobs.
He also took that knowledge — and a lifetime spent filling sketchbooks — into a post-degree art-school class taught by a Disney imagineer, who encouraged Husband to apply for an animator trainee program the entertainment company had initiated, largely to populate its legendary animation studios with a new generation of talent.
He got into the program, and quietly made history as Disney's first Black animator — and later, supervising animator. He would go on to draw some of Disney's most iconic characters, especially during the company's late-20th-century run of animation blockbusters, starting with 1989's "The Little Mermaid."
Now retired from Disney, Husband teaches the fundamentals of art and drawing at various colleges and schools in Southern California.
Ron Husband's story is told in a documentary released earlier this year called "Huz: Drawn to Life." The film will be shown Thursday, October 1 at UNLV's Dolby-Atmos Theatre (FDH-109), with Husband in conversation with director Don Hahn after the screening. RSVPs are encouraged here.
Guest: Ron Husband, educator, retired animator
