Sharon Lund; Daughter of Walt Disney

Sharon Disney Lund, Southland philanthropist and a daughter of Walt Disney, died Tuesday of complications of cancer at St. John’s Medical Center in Santa Monica. She was 56.

Mrs. Lund was an officer of Retlaw ( Walter spelled backward) Enterprises, a successor to the corporation originally organized by Walt Disney in 1952 to further his family’s personal business interests.

She also was a trustee for CalArts, the school in Valencia that was originally funded by her family. The school offers degrees in music, art and related subjects. She also served on the Walt Disney Co. Board of Directors.

Her charitable activities included the Marianne Frostig Center of Educational Therapy, a school for children with learning disabilities; the Curtis School Foundation and the Music Center. She and her family have contributed nearly $100 million for construction of Disney Hall on Bunker Hill.

Traditionally, the Disneys have been an extremely private family, despite their fame.

In 1992, Mrs. Lund told Forbes magazine that the Disney children were never “raised with the idea that (her father) was a great man. He was Daddy. He went to work every morning. He came home every night.”

Widowed and divorced, she is survived by three children from those two marriages, her mother, Lillian, and an older sister, Diane Disney Miller.

Funeral services will be private.