Biography

June 5, 1908 · San Francisco, California, USA

March 29, 2000 · Santee, California, USA (cancer)

John Kenneth Peterson

In 1941, he represented his fellow animators during their strike against Disney Studios. Thanks to his combination of civility, good humor and effectiveness during those successful negotiations, Walt Disney began promoting him through a series of management positions.

After Disneyland was built in Anaheim, California, in the 1950s, Walt Disney asked Peterson to develop merchandise. He began framing cells in his garage that then were sold at the park for about $2 each. Collectors now pay as much as $2,000 for one cell.

He came to Santa Fe after his retirement and became a serigrapher (an artist who makes prints by forcing ink through mesh).

He was a sales manager after college, but his true love was art. During the Great Depression he quit his job and, without any formal training, set out to become a cartoonist. After a brief attempt at making his own animated motion pictures, he joined the army of young artists Walt Disney hired in 1936 for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

According to his son, Fred, when the Disney movies were completed, his father would bring home the 24 8-by-11-inch cells (drawn by the artists to produce a frame for an animated film) and made smoke bombs with them. They were considered worthless for years.

One should behave toward others as one would want others to behave toward oneself.