The Jacob Burns Film Center Names Mary Jo Ziesel New Executive Director broadwayworld.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from broadwayworld.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Orange County Arts Philanthropist William Gillespie Dies at 79
Orange County philanthropist William J. Gillespie has died, leaving behind a legacy of patronization for the arts. He was 79.
Gillespie was a significant supporter of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California, the largest nonprofit arts organization in Orange County.
“Everyone at Segerstrom Center for the Arts is deeply saddened by the passing of Bill Gillespie. He was incredibly generous in fostering the creative process and, in particular dance,” the Segerstrom Center said in a statement. “His support came in many ways, but it was most often about sharing the beauty of the arts.”
By ANNE VALDESPINO | The Orange County Register | Published: December 15, 2020 SANTA ANA, Calif. (Tribune News Service) He was a community leader supporting local performing arts, a renaissance man, a dapper dresser and a fun guy with a quirky sense of humor. Friends and colleagues were remembering philanthropist William J. Gillespie who died of natural causes on Thursday, Dec. 10. A Laguna Beach resident, he was 79. He had quite a diverse background, said John Gunnin, a board member of the William Gillespie Foundation. He was a Marine, and then of course he was a guy from theater, ballet, dance, he had all of these loves, and he was very generous to all of these different Orange County organizations. He had a wonderful sense of humor, very unexpected, and he really marched to his own drum, Gunnin said.