ORLANDO, Fla. – Dick Nunis, the former chairman of Walt Disney Attractions, died at the age of 91 in his adopted hometown of Orlando, according to the Walt Disney Company.
According to a news release, Nunis started his career at Disneyland in 1955 and helped grow Walt Disney’s outdoor entertainment enterprise from a single park in Anaheim into the world-class global theme park and resort business.
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Nunis’ ambition to become a professional football player was cut short when he suffered a broken neck while playing. He graduated in 1955, in time to start on the lowest rungs as Disneyland was getting ready to open.
“Today, we mourn the passing of Dick Nunis, a true Disney Legend whose contributions to The Walt Disney Company have touched the lives of millions of people all over the world,” said Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company. “What started as a summer job training future Disneyland employees would ultimately become a storied 44-year career at Disney.”
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Nunis learned about Disneyland through his classmate, Ron Miller, who was Walt’s son-in-law, according to the release.
It was during the early years that Nunis learned Walt Disney’s theme park philosophy firsthand.
“Walt believed strongly that what would make Disneyland different was the people—he wanted them to feel that they were part of the organization,” Nunis once said. “That’s why he established the first-name policy—he was Walt, I was Dick, and so on. From an overall operations point of view, the most important thing is to work together to make sure that when guests come, they have a wonderful experience.”
In 1961, he became director of park operations and helped develop Walt Disney World Resort.
From 1967–74, he served as chairman of the Park Operations Committee, and, in 1968, was promoted to vice president of operations. By 1971, the year Magic Kingdom opened at Walt Disney World, he was named executive vice president of Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
In 1980 he was named president of the Outdoor Recreation Division, overseeing EPCOT Center and, later Disney-MGM Studios, since renamed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
According to the release, exactly 44 years to the day after he joined the company, Nunis retired as chairman of Walt Disney Attractions.
Nunis and his wife Mary were also founding donors of the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and the following quote from the couple appears on the school’s website:
“We believe the UCF College of Medicine was needed in our community and that someday it would create one of the finest medical centers in our country and create a lot of jobs and opportunity in our community.”
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