Longtime Denver newspaper columnist Bill Husted dies at age 76

Denver Press Club Hall of Famer Bill Husted died over the weekend after a battle with cancer.

Husted wrote newspaper columns for both the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post over his long journalism career. He also appeared for a time on CBS Colorado a few decades ago when the TV station was News4. He was an on-the-town commentator.

He first appeared in print in the Mile High City in the 80s and wrote articles into the 2010s.

In his obituary in the Denver Post, writer John Wenzel reports Husted died at his Colorado home in hospice care.

"Bill's column was always a 'must-read' in the newspaper. It was always great fun to open the paper first thing in the morning and read about the most posh party, or the hottest new nightspot through his eyes. And he always wanted to know what was going on and always made sure to ask!" said CBS Colorado's investigative reporter Brian Maass.

 "Even if they claimed to be the devoted solely to the op/ed pages and not interested in such things, everyone read Bill," said CBS Colorado's Alan Gionet. "It was good reading. He had a balance of people and things and no matter the priority, the paper was not fully digested without reading Bill," added Gionet.

Bill Husted was honored by being inducted into the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame in late September. CBS Colorado's Tori Mason, vice president of the Press Club's Board of Directors paid tribute to Bill, saying, "Readers show tremendous loyalty to newspaper columnists, and often find they identify more with them than the newspaper itself... When it comes down to it, columnists encourage us to think. People were always waiting to see what Bill Husted thought. Bill was a witty, man about town who somehow managed to take everyone along for the ride."

"He was having a tough time at that point," said Alan, "But he still had that glint in his eye."

Husted had a varied and wandering background. He was born in New York City, studied literature at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, later opened the Great Divide bar in Denver before returning to New York for a stint in academia, then bounced around Europe and Africa for two years. He returned to Denver and joined the Rocky Mountain News as a nightlife columnist then society and city columnist. He switched to the Denver Post in 1996 and did his television stints for almost two decades.

"For his entire career and even after he left the newspaper, his license plate was 'TELL ME', which told you all you needed to know about Bill and his curiosity about our town, and what was going on in every nook and cranny," shared Maass.

"I'd run into him at a bar like El Chapultepec and you'd get a kick out of him relating some story," said Gionet. "But as much as he was a raconteur, he was always asking and updating his notes on people. I think we did a piece when I first got to town in the early 90s by sitting down at Pete's Kitchen, which I immediately discovered was a place I belonged. Bill liked the location, too, and was perfectly comfortable there, so he wrote kindly. But he could show up at some swanky joint in town with his handkerchief decorated blazer and smooth his way through the money crowd, too."

"I always felt like Bill had a knack for threading the needle -- getting the juicy gossip about who was doing what and with whom, but managing to finesse things so he didn't aggravate too many of the 'bold faced names,'" recalled Maass.