March 9, 1984 – Roy E. Disney Resigns from The Walt Disney Company Board
“The thing that distinguishes us from everybody else, and always has and always will, is our past…we shouldn’t be intimidated by them; they’re an arrow pointing someplace.”
On March 9, 1984, Roy E. Disney, son of Roy O. Disney and nephew of Walt Disney, resigned from his position on the board of The Walt Disney Company. Tensions had reached a boiling point by 1984, as Disney was not thrilled with the direction the company was going under the leadership of Walt’s son-in-law, Ron Miller. Soon after Disney resigned, he started buying up several shares of the company, raising his stake to 5.2 percent. His actions, however, led to several takeover actions against the company, and forced Miller to resign. Later that year, after gaining backing of the largest group of shareholders to hire Michael Eisner as the CEO and Frank Wells as the president, Disney working with the company as its vice chairman and headed up the animation department.
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