Card Walker, a mailroom employee who rose to become the first chief executive at the Walt Disney Co. who wasn't a member of the Disney family, leading the company from 1971 to 1983, has died. He was 89.
Walker, who oversaw the development of Walt Disney World, died of congestive heart failure Monday at his home in La Canada Flintridge, the company announced.
During his tenure, Walker brokered the deal for the company's first international theme park: Tokyo Disneyland, which opened in 1983. He also oversaw the development of Epcot Center at Walt Disney World in Florida and helped found the Disney Channel, the cable TV network launched in 1983.
"Card was instrumental in keeping Disney strong and growing in the critical years that followed the passing of founders Walt and Roy Disney," Robert Iger, president and CEO of the company, said in a statement. Walt and Roy Disney, who were brothers, founded the Disney company.
Michael Eisner, the former chief executive officer who ran Disney from 1984 until earlier this year, praised Walker for steering the company through "a challenging time of transition."
Walker ran the company after Roy Disney, father of Roy E. Disney, who left the company's board in 2003, died in 1971. Walt Disney had died five years before.
"Thanks to his deep understanding of the company and its founders, talking to Card was the next best thing to talking to Walt himself," Eisner said in a statement.
Some critics have argued that Walker's strong ties to Walt Disney interfered with the way he ran the company.
A 1984 Time magazine story said Walker "made decisions according to what Walt would have done," which made Disney steadily lose "touch with modern taste."
While filmmakers raised on Disney movies were making "Jaws" (1975) and "Star Wars" (1977), Disney was making "Herbie Goes Bananas" (1980), said Jim Hill, who has tracked Disney history for 25 years.
"Card wasn't the great creative, but he was a great steward," Hill said. "A lot of stuff he did very well -- and he had an awfully hard act to follow as the first non-Disney to run the company."
Known as a stern taskmaster, the straight-laced Walker was "beloved by his employees," Hill said.
Sandy Quinn, whom Walker hired in 1968 to head the marketing department at the yet-to-be-built Disney World, considered Walker his mentor.
