Walt Disney, who began chain smoking while serving in the military, was diagnosed with lung cancer on November 6th, 1966. Doctors told him he might expect to live from six months to two years. But, just over a month later, on December 15th, ten days after his sixty-fifth birthday, Walt Disney died.

Throughout his final weeks, Disney worked furiously to complete plans for the project he believed would define his legacy: EPCOT. Disney's vision for EPCOT was not of the perpetual world's fair that bears its name today. Disney's dream was to build an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow--a functioning metropolis, not just an amusement park.

The urban area, designed on a radial grid, would include a "Magic Kingdom" and so much more: a hotel and convention center at its center; a transportation system including monorails and people movers; an industrial complex; an international airport; a residential community; a green belt. EPCOT would represent all that Disney and his Imagineers had learned in creating and maintaining the clean and controlled environment of Disneyland. It would represent a vision of a whole new world, a "Walt Disney World."

It would become an international center for cultural exchange. Young people from around the globe would be invited to intern at EPCOT; they would be encouraged to return to their homelands and implement the lessons learned while living in Disney's city of tomorrow. Tourists visiting EPCOT would visit shops and restaurants recreating the sights and flavors of the world.

This was Disney's dream. But life, and death, intervened.

In a room adjacent to Disney's studio office, behind a locked door, the walls were covered by photographs, sketches, and notes rendering Disney's vision of EPCOT. As his health deteriorated, his efforts to commit the vision to paper grew more desperate. During these final weeks, Disney--who revealed himself to few--spoke freely, vulnerably, to the studio nurse, Hazel George.

Every evening Hazel would bring Disney a libation and use massage therapy to ease his pain. As death drew near, Disney was readmitted to St. Joseph's hospital across the street from the studio. One evening Hazel came to visit Disney. He was inconsolable, devastated, knowing that he would die before plans were complete. Sobbing, he told Hazel, "Fancy being remembered around the world for the invention of a mouse!"