His Death
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Walt wanted to expand his vision. He wanted to build more theme parks and bring happiness to even more people. So, he sent his agents to Florida to look for land. They came back with good news! There was land for sale that was 170 times larger than Disneyland. With this new prospect in mind, Disney started planning the building of what he called, Disney World. Walt had many new ideas for the new theme park, but he wanted to keep some of the old ones too. Many of the same lands and attractions that were in Disneyland would be rebuilt, but many new ones would be added. One of these was the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, also known as EPCOT. Walt Disney said,
"I don't believe there's a challenge anywhere in the world that's more important to people everywhere than finding solutions to the problems of our cities. But where do we begin... how do we start answering this great challenge? Well, we're convinced we must start answering the public need. And the need is for starting from scratch on virgin land and building a special kind of new community that will always be in a state of becoming. It will never cease to be a living blueprint of the future, where people actually live a life they can't find anywhere else in the world."
The project progressed slowly and Walt’s health was failing. He was grouchy most of the time, and with a grouchy leader, you get a grouchy crew. Disney feared what would happen to his business when he died, more than he feared dying. He was afraid that when he died, no one would have the guts to take responsibility and build Disney World and especially EPCOT. Although, Walt’s health was failing, his company certainly was not. His business was the largest business organization in the world directly controlled by a single person. Don Nardo explains it this way:
“Disney still owned one of the largest and most successful movie studios in the world. His television programs continued to receive high ratings, and there was a waiting list of companies anxious to sponsor them. The enormous library of films and TV shows he owned contained hundreds of classics that could be shown again and again to succeeding generations. Calculating the potential worth of this collection was impossible for it was clearly priceless.”
Disney’s health started to decline even more in November, and he died on December 15, 1966 at the age of 65.
"I don't believe there's a challenge anywhere in the world that's more important to people everywhere than finding solutions to the problems of our cities. But where do we begin... how do we start answering this great challenge? Well, we're convinced we must start answering the public need. And the need is for starting from scratch on virgin land and building a special kind of new community that will always be in a state of becoming. It will never cease to be a living blueprint of the future, where people actually live a life they can't find anywhere else in the world."
The project progressed slowly and Walt’s health was failing. He was grouchy most of the time, and with a grouchy leader, you get a grouchy crew. Disney feared what would happen to his business when he died, more than he feared dying. He was afraid that when he died, no one would have the guts to take responsibility and build Disney World and especially EPCOT. Although, Walt’s health was failing, his company certainly was not. His business was the largest business organization in the world directly controlled by a single person. Don Nardo explains it this way:
“Disney still owned one of the largest and most successful movie studios in the world. His television programs continued to receive high ratings, and there was a waiting list of companies anxious to sponsor them. The enormous library of films and TV shows he owned contained hundreds of classics that could be shown again and again to succeeding generations. Calculating the potential worth of this collection was impossible for it was clearly priceless.”
Disney’s health started to decline even more in November, and he died on December 15, 1966 at the age of 65.