Karen Leslie Glass, a former Walt Disney Studios executive and producer who helped develop such blockbusters as 2001’s “The Princess Diaries,” “Herbie: Fully Loaded” and the 2003 remake of “Freaky Friday,” passed away last Monday, Dec. 22, from surgical complications due to pancreatic cancer.
A Northwest Baltimore native who lived for decades in Los Angeles, Glass was 63.
She was the sister of public radio host Ira Glass, and a 1980 graduate of Milford Mill High School.
Karen Glass graduated in 1984 from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor of arts degree and bachelor of science in economics. She later earned a master of business administration from the University of Los Angeles Anderson School of Management.
From 1989 to 2006, Glass served as an executive vice president of production at Disney. Among her credits were “Tuck Everlasting,” “Freaky Friday,” “Ice Princess,” “Raising Helen,” “The Lizzie McGuire Movie” and “The Princess Diaries.”
In a tribute on the website of Sol Levinson & Bros., her family noted that Glass bought the young adult novel “The Princess Diaries” by Meg Cabot for Disney and was instrumental in casting legendary English actress Julie Andrew for the role of the grandmother/queen.
“She’s also produced a number of holiday films including — this year — ‘A Pickleball Christmas,’” her family wrote. “She recently started a business to counsel high school students applying to college.”
Glass was also reportedly working on a mahjong-themed holiday season movie.
Glass is survived by her son, Zachary Sean Barry; her sister and brother, Randi Glass Murray and Ira Glass; their spouses, David Meckel and Susanna Fogel; her stepmother, Sandy Glass; her nephews, Sam and Ben Murray; her uncle, Bennett Politzer; and many friends. She was also close with her cousins, Amy Mischler and Holly DuBois and their families.
She was a distant cousin of the celebrated Baltimore-born composer, Philip Glass.
Glass was predeceased by her parents, Dr. Shirley P. Glass, an internationally known psychologist and author, and accountant Barry S. Glass; and her grandparents, Frieda Glass and Mollie and Melvin Politzer.
A funeral service was held in Los Angeles on Dec. 23. Interment was held Dec. 26 at 11 a.m. at Har Sinai Cemetery, 11405 Garrison Forest Road in Owings Mills.
“I was so hit by the news of her passing,” wrote TV studio executive Robert Kaplan, a friend and former colleague of Glass. “I remember well not just our friendship, but the way Karen, even as a grad student, could hold a conference room full of our top executives. To paraphrase E.B. White: It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good storyteller. Karen was both.”
A former resident of Baltimore and central Florida, Ritt was active in the Soviet Jewry movement of the 1970s and 1980s.
For more than four decades, Goldman played a vital role in the supervision of elections in the city.
The 16-year-old sophomore succumbed to injuries sustained in a car crash last week in Cockeysville.
A committed philanthropist and community leader, Russel was president of R&H Motors.