William H. Hudnut III, a former Indianapolis mayor who was credited with turning the city into a sports capital and revitalizing its downtown after years of decline, died Dec. 18 at a hospice community in Rockville, Md. He was 84.
Mr. Hudnut had lived in the Washington area since the 1990s and finished his political career with a stint as mayor of Chevy Chase, Md., from 2004 to 2006.
When Mr. Hudnut was first elected its mayor in 1975, Indianapolis was a Rust Belt city that had been hollowed out by white suburban flight and the decline of the manufacturing base.
Downtown Indianapolis had become so desolate that men with shotguns hunted pigeons on Sundays among empty buildings and along a trash-strewn canal. Novelist and native son Kurt Vonnegut described the city in 1970 as a place where “it was no easy thing to be an optimist” and the passage of time was marked by “the 500-mile speedway race, and then 364 days of miniature golf.”
Enter Mr. Hudnut, a Republican and former Presbyterian minister who over the course of 16 years laid the groundwork his successors have built upon, turning Indianapolis into a hub for conventions and sporting events. Mr. Hudnut was the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history, and his popularity was so great that in 1983, state legislators passed the so-called “Hudnut forever” bill, enabling him and subsequent big-city mayors in Indiana to serve more than two successive terms in office.
Indianapolis’s downtown now boasts hotels, restaurants, theaters, a three-mile canal walk and boutique apartments. A modern convention center and stadiums for professional football and basketball have been built. Construction cranes hover above the city.
“The vision I have for Indianapolis is a city that is both economically competitive and compassionate toward urban and human problems,” Mr. Hudnut said during his final term in office. “To make the city more livable involves more than just creating beautiful spaces and buildings. It’s more than a solid economic foundation and more than good jobs. It’s embracing future change. It’s dealing with tough human issues that touch the compassionate side in all of us.”
Mr. Hudnut spearheaded construction of the Hoosier Dome football stadium in 1982 with no guarantees that a National Football League team would locate there. By the time the stadium was completed in 1984, he had persuaded the Baltimore Colts to make it their new home, shocking Maryland politicians and fans who felt betrayed by the Colts' middle-of-the-night move out of Charm City.
Mr. Hudnut also created the Indiana Sports Corp., a city commission that has brought Indianapolis sporting events that included the 1982 National Sports Festival, a competition for U.S. Olympic hopefuls; the 1987 Pan American Games; and the 1991 World Gymnastics Championships.
In 2015, Mr. Hudnut was one of several former mayors who penned a public letter amid uproar over a religious objections law signed by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R), now the vice president-elect. The law created a legal defense for business owners and employees with religious objections to serving or accommodating gay people. Mr. Hudnut and the other mayors said the law threatened to undo efforts made since 1967 to “build an inclusive, caring and hospitable city.”
Pence and lawmakers later approved changes to the law.
David Frick, a deputy mayor under Mr. Hudnut, told the Indianapolis Business Journal that the mayor was inclusive and a "consensus builder" and wasn't afraid to sit down with Democrats and labor unions.
“History will judge him for what he did in bringing the community together to tackle the revitalization of downtown,” said Frick, who was deputy mayor in the late 1970s. “Politicians these days tend to retreat to their core supporters. He was always looking for input from different parts of the community.”
William Herbert Hudnut III was born in Cincinnati on Oct. 17, 1932. His father and grandfather were Presbyterian ministers. After graduating in 1954 from Princeton University — where his classmates included future secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland — Mr. Hudnut studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York and preached in Annapolis and Buffalo.
He moved to Indianapolis in 1963 to preach at Second Presbyterian Church. He entered politics a decade later, winning a term in Congress in 1972 but losing his bid for reelection.
He "got the itch" for public office, Mr. Hudnut told Indianapolis Monthly this year, when he chaired a committee of ministers supporting then-Mayor Richard Lugar and "was beguiled by the roar of the crowd, the stemwinder speeches, the bunting in red, white and blue."
After his final term as mayor, which lasted until the end of 1991, Mr. Hudnut relocated to Chicago and then to suburban Maryland. He was a former president of the National League of Cities and was senior fellow emeritus at the Urban Land Institute.
His marriages to Anne Goodyear and Susan Greer ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of 27 years, Beverly Guidara, who was his former press secretary, and four children.
The Washington Post reported that some neighbors, after learning of his experience in Indianapolis, successfully urged him to run for Chevy Chase’s Town Council in 2000. The position of mayor rotates among the council’s five members.
"It's a public service," Mr. Hudnut told The Post in 2004, six months into his tenure as mayor. "I try to help out where I'm located."
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