From the December 2007 Peg-Board

Local 839 charter member KEN SOUTHWORTH died on December 5 at the age of eighty-nine.

Ken began at Disney in 1945, working on Three Caballeros, Song of the South, Alice In Wonderland, Cinderella and The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow. In 1952, he was one of the people who signed the original charter application to form Local 839 IATSE. At Clokey Productions, he was a stop motion director and storyboard artist on Davy and Goliath. From 1953 to 1956 he worked at Walter Lantz as an animator.

Ken worked at MGM from 1956 to 1958, and from 1963 to 1986 he animated for Hanna-Barbera on Huckleberry Hound, Top Cat, Space Ghost, Jonny Quest, Scooby Doo, Superfriends, The Flintstones, Kwicky Koala, Swat Kats, Dino Buy and The Smurfs, and many others. At Filmation he worked on The Batman/Superman Hour, Treasure Island, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra Princess of Power and Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night. Ken also directed on Adventures from the Book of Virtues for PBS.

He taught animation at the American Animation Institute, Glendale Animation Studios, Cal State Fullerton, VanArts, the Art Institute of Laguna Beach and the Detroit Center for Creative Studies. He received the Animation Guild Golden Award in 2005.