Palladium founder and ‘Burg visionary Bill Hough is gone, but his legacy remains

Without William R. (Bill) Hough it is safe to say there would not be a Palladium Theater. Without Bill Hough so much that we love about St. Petersburg would not be here.

 

Bill was a visionary and at times a risk taker. He bet heavily on his adopted home of St. Petersburg, investing in education and the arts. He took a chance on a musician and former journalist who claimed he could run the performing arts venue Bill, Hazel and a small group of family and friends had created. I don’t know that I ever thanked him properly for hiring me back in 2007. It was August, just a few months after he had handed over the Palladium (free and clear) to St. Petersburg College and created the endowment that made all our success possible.

 

Bill died this week and I take comfort in the fact the he likely didn’t want to be in this world without Hazel, his beloved wife, who died in 2019. And illness had shut his brilliant brain and indefatigable spirit inside walls of silence that I’m sure were hard to bear.

 

I was told he could be a tough task master, but our relationship was always cordial. He offered advice. He looked over our finances. But he let me have my head when it came to running the Palladium. And he was always happy to celebrate our successes. He loved the party we threw on our 15th anniversary. And he shared my excitement when I showed him improvements we had made to the theater, right down to the tour of the new bathrooms. (He asked me if he could make sure they were working properly!).

 

I was always happy when I saw he and Hazel in their favorite seats, adjacent to the center staircase in Hough Hall.

 

Through the Hough Family Foundation, Bill and Hazel and their children continue to be the theater’s major supporters.

 

I”ll write more about Bill in a future PalladiumPaul blog, but for now I send condolences to his entire family from all of us at the Palladium. We loved Hazel and Bill. And we will miss them.

 

I consider myself lucky to have been their friends. They were so very special to my wife and me and we treasure our memories of them.

 

And today, as the Palladium faces unprecedented challenges, I promise Bill and Hazel that the theater will survive, that we will return to serve the community they loved, and will will always honor their memory and their vision.