Hilton Head arts lightning rod John David Rose dies

John David Rose's strong opinions made him a lightning rod in more than two decades on Hilton Head Island.

But his primary contribution was in the arts. He starred on stage, playing Charles Dickens in the world premiere of the John Jakes adaptation of "A Christmas Carol." And he chaired the boards of the Community Playhouse and the Hilton Head Island Coalition of the Arts as the community wrestled its way toward creation of the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina.

Long after his move to Black Mountain, N.C., in 2005, it's clear that Rose's most lasting contribution was his work to bring the statewide accommodations tax to life in 1984.

Rose, who died March 12 at age 86, joined island tourism leaders, the late John C. Curry and Angus Cotton, in supporting a "bed tax" bill state Rep. Harriet Keyserling of Beaufort had pushed for a decade. Its 2 percent tax on overnight lodging now pumps millions of dollars annually into local arts, recreation, tourism marketing and a tourism-related expenses.

In her book, "Against the Tide," Keyserling wrote of the importance of Hilton Head's support. "At last we had allies in the resort sector," she wrote.

As a former director of the Utah Travel Council, Rose had seen room-tax revenues turn a once-dying downtown Salt Lake City into a bustling place with an arena, convention hall and symphony hall, Keyserling wrote.

"He argued that if the room tax was used in this way in South Carolina, he would support it," Keyserling said. She credited the island tourism leaders with helping sell the bill, both in the legislature and in their many trips aboard Curry's small plane to lobby tourism leaders statewide.

Last year, the bed tax brought $4 million to Hilton Head Island. It has been a mainstay to the budget of the arts center.

In Utah, Rose was a special assistant and press secretary to the governor, and was credited with energizing tourism in a state that until then had never been a tourist destination.

Rose was an Idaho native and Korean War veteran with many years of tourism and political public relations experience when he was first hired by Sea Pines founder Charles E. Fraser in 1974. He stayed two years, but returned to the company in 1978 as senior vice president of marketing and sports. He later became a partner in the local advertising and public relations firm, Gardo, Doughtie & Rose.

"After the Korean War, John David went to southern California to try his hand in films," said his friend and former business partner Tom Gardo. "He didn't have much success in Hollywood, but did strike up a friendship with Paul Newman because of their common love for race cars. They participated in a number of small races together. It was here that John David also found a love for sailing."

Gardo said Rose later became friends with Robert Redford, and worked with him on the film "Downhill Racer."

Between his stints at Sea Pines, Rose took a two-year contract to market the island of Sardinia and a resort called Costa Smeralda, working directly with Prince Aga Khan IV (Prince Shah Karim Al Hussaini Aga Khan IV), known as one of the richest royals in the world, Gardo said.

After that, he fulfilled a lifetime dream in buying the sailboat Lilt and sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to Hilton Head.

"JD later said that the only time he was frightened was when they became becalmed in the Sargasso Sea for nearly two weeks, unable to catch a breeze," Gardo said. "After arriving on Hilton Head three months later, John David berthed his beloved Lilt in Palmetto Bay Marina and for a time lived on board."

Rose had a clear voice in the community.

He wrote numerous letters to the editor, often about the arts but also on the topics ranging from the Sea Pines Circle to beach nourishment. He chaired an organization called Fair Share, leading its push for a local referendum on beach nourishment. It opposed spending town bed tax or property tax revenues on beach nourishment in front of private properties.

Rose later wrote columns for many years in The Hilton Head News and the Carolina Morning News, taking the liberal viewpoint in a weekly essay opposite the conservative viewpoint of Bill Roe of Bluffton.

"He took a lot of heat for his thoughts and I don't think he cared," Roe said this week. "Give David credit for being a passionate believer in left-wing theory, and he was willing to put it out there."

Rose published a book of his columns, called "Rescuing Capitalism from Corporatism: Greed and the American Corporate Culture."

On Hilton Head, he met and married musician Penny Roberts Rose and, beginning in 1981, their lives touched most musical or theatrical productions on the island. She is a flutist who played with the Hilton Head Community Orchestra at its inception in 1982. She taught music at Hilton Head Preparatory School, and led student choirs there and at Hilton Head Island High School, as well as the Island Singers. She was a music director and pit pianist at the Community Playhouse, accompanied the annual community performance of Handel's "Messiah," and was organist and choir director at St. Luke's Church.

John, who built Penny a virginal harpsichord, was a singing actor who starred as Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady" and won the Community Playhouse's "Best Actor in a Musical" award in 1986 in the role of Emile de Becque in "South Pacific."

Outside the playhouse, which was located in a former warehouse on Dunnagan's Alley, Rose lent his talent to the community in compiling, writing and reading in productions such as "America, America" on the Fourth of July, and "Christmas Through the Ages," performed during Christmas seasons, Island Packet arts columnist Nancy K. Wellard reported.

He served on the Town of Hilton Head Island's Accommodations Tax Advisory Committee.

His stepdaughter Ann Gerschefski wrote on Facebook this week:

"The last few years were difficult, and it is nice to know that he is now physically and mentally comfortable. He once sailed from Italy to South Carolina on a frighteningly small boat, and as the rector of his current church put it today, 'May he again sail the oceans he loved.' And I will add that I hope he ends up on an island that has many dogs, and Braves baseball 24/7/365. RIP JD: 6/26/31-3/12/18."

Rose often found himself having to defend tourism in the constant resident-versus-visitor debates on Hilton Head.

He closed one letter to the editor with this:

"Hilton Head Island is a delightful place to live — thanks in large part to the services and facilities that the tourist requires and largely pays for. What will make it truly 'heaven on earth' is if our own island and county residents catch the spirit of thoughtfulness and service to others that people in the tourism industry strive to maintain."

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on April 11 at St. James Episcopal Church, Black Mountain.

This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 2:56 PM with the headline "Hilton Head arts lightning rod John David Rose dies."