William Lewis Denton

William Lewis Denton, 74, of Palm Springs, CA passed away July 4, 2007. He was born July 25, 1932 in San Diego. In between these dates he did a lot of living, all over the world. His passport is still smoking!! He loved to travel. He attended Point Loma High School, and after his military service, graduated from San Diego State University in 1957 with a degree in Economics and Political Science. His parents were Ruth and Lewis Denton of San Diego. He has many relatives in the Goodbody family and his cousin Dan Stack, all San Diegans. When Bill was 11 years old he wrote a letter to Mayor Harley E. Knox about an idea for starting a radio program for S.D. Youth. He met with the mayor on July 29, 1943 and it became a reality on September 25, 1943. The program was aired as "House of Believe" and 11 year old Bill was master of ceremonies. Bill's passion was classical music. He dedicated his working life to it. The theatre was a close second. He was a Road Manager for Helen Hayes. In 1964 he was the General Manager of the San Diego Symphony as well as the Opera Company, Chicago Symphony 1961, the Atlanta Symphony 1968, and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center 1968. While there, he hired Rostropovich, World famous cellist, as music director and conductor of the National Symphony. They became close friends, and frequently traveled together to engagements. Bill worked with most of the "Greats" in classical music in the last century; Isaac Stern, Aaron Copeland, Arthur Fiedler, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, and Lenard Pennario. All luminaries!! In 1980, Bill moved to San Francisco. He went to work for the Midsummer Mozart for nine years. In 2000, Bill moved to Palm Springs where so many of his friends had retired. He led an active social life and still enjoyed traveling. He was active right up until the end of his life.