Q: I am cataloging the Disney Golden Book, Supercar, by George Sherman, with pictures by Mel Crawford. I’d like to create a unique authority record for Mr. Sherman, since he shares his name, George R. Sherman, with a geologist and the author of The Negro as a Soldier. I understand from a brief article on the net that Mr. Sherman died in 1974 and that he worked as “head of foreign relations” and in the publications department from the late 1950s until he died. Can you find the man’s date of birth and possibly his full middle name? I seem to have lost my bookmark for an archival page that gave brief biographies of many of the artists and writers who worked at the Disney Studios; has that page been pulled?
Emilie, Minneapolis, Minnesota
A: His full name was George Ransom Sherman, born September 30, 1928, and died August 3, 1974. When I met him in 1967, he was head of the Disney publications department. The Web page you are thinking of may be the one for the Disney Legends; it is still there.
Dave Smith