Theestate of Disney animation artist John C Hench has made a $5m endowment gift tocreate the John C Hench Division of Animation & Digital Arts at theUniversity of Southern California's (USC) School of Cinema-Television.

Theendowment will support several key initiatives including funding faculty andstudent assistant positions, updating technology, underwritingartists-in-residence, hosting symposia, and producing exhibits, animation showsand DVDs.

Henchdied on Feb 5, 2004, aged 95. He started his career at Disney in 1939 and wenton to work on Peter Pan, Dumbo, Fantasia, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea,Alice In Wonderland, among others.