Tully: Former Mayor Bill Hudnut fights for his life

Former Mayor Bill Hudnut, a towering figure in the city's history and a man who spent so many years fighting to build the modern day Indianapolis, is now fighting for his life.

A gregarious minister turned politician, and the longest-serving mayor in city history, the 82-year-old Hudnut has been told by his doctors that the congestive heart failure he has long dealt with has now moved to an advanced and irreversible stage. This month, he also learned he has throat cancer.

"The doctors have told me it's probably a question of months and not years," Hudnut said Sunday by phone from his home in Maryland. But, he added: "The key is to not give into it and to try to remain optimistic, and to not be a drag on the people around you. I don't want to mope around, saying 'woe is me.' You have to keep carrying on and keep the faith."

That fighting spirit likely doesn't surprise anyone who has known or worked with Hudnut. This is, after all, a politician who dreamed big dreams for his sleepy Midwestern city, who helped lure the NFL to town, who worked to transform a dusty Downtown into the pride of the state, and who treated blizzards and construction projects alike as an opportunity to unite his city and sell his constituents on the art of the possible.

The offspring of Hudnut's work to rejuvenate Indianapolis will be on display once again this week, as the NCAA men's Final Four basketball tournament returns to town. Unfortunately, Hudnut said, his health means he and his wife, Beverly, won't be able to return to Indianapolis for the tournament. That's a hard reality for a politician who clearly remains in love with the city he long led, and who reminisced Sunday about attending a Final Four — the city's first after construction of the Hoosier Dome — during his final year in office more than 20 years ago.

"At that time, it was a great highlight for Indianapolis to get in that rotation," he said. "It proved that we could host huge sporting events. People might take that for granted now, but it wasn't as obvious to everyone back then."

Until recently, Hudnut said, he was hopeful he could make the trip to Indianapolis. But in an email he sent this weekend to friends and family, he said he is now on medical leave from his position at Georgetown University. He shared a blunt diagnosis: The medication he began taking for heart failure in recent months "statistically keeps the heart going for six months." Meantime, he is undergoing radiation treatment for the cancer five days each week.

Despite the prognosis, he wrote, "Our mantra around here is: keep calm and carry on."

In our conversation, Hudnut laughed and sounded like the jovial politician Indianapolis has known for decades. When I noted that, he said he feels fortunate. He's had a great life, filled with amazing stories, and he has a family that he can count on. Beverly Hudnut, his wife of 26 years, recalled a long conversation the two had before marrying about the age gap separating them.

"I remember Bill saying, 'I'll schlep the bags for now, but at some point you're going to have to do it,' " Beverly, 56, said. "It's now the reality of our situation. You can be really down about it or you can remain positive. For better or worse, we are both built to be chipper people. You try to make the most of every day."

These days, the former mayor said he is hoping that he will see his son, Christopher, graduate from college next year. The doctors, he said, "have not given me much hope that I will, but that's my goal."

Hudnut left office at the end of 1991 after four terms, and he left Indiana a few years later for the Washington, D.C., area. There, he has written books, consulted, taught and even served a stint as a councilman and mayor in the Maryland town of Chevy Chase. But he's kept close ties to Indianapolis, particularly in recent years as he has developed a close relationship with Mayor Greg Ballard.

In 2012, Hudnut spent several days soaking in the city's first Super Bowl, which many noted was an event tied directly to the work he had done decades earlier to rebuild Downtown. During that week, the then 79-year-old Hudnut was seen at one point racing down the zip line that had been set up Downtown for the festivities.

He was last in Indianapolis in December when the city unveiled a bronze statue of "Mayor Bill" at the corner of Maryland Street and Capitol Avenue, on the edge of the recently renamed Hudnut Commons. At the time, Ballard talked about Hudnut's most noted legacy as mayor: building a football stadium in a fiscally conservative city before there was a football team in town.

That, Ballard said, was "the gutsiest thing I ever knew."

More than three decades after the stadium was built, Indianapolis is a stronger city. Its Downtown is once again preparing to bask in the national spotlight. Much of that can be credited to a man who was perhaps the most optimistic mayor the city has known.

"I really, really enjoyed my 16 years as mayor and the opportunity to serve the people of the city," Hudnut said Sunday. "I hope my epitaph will read that I built well and that I cared about people."

You can reach me at matthew.tully@indystar.com or at Twitter.com/matthewltully.

Note: Former Mayor Bill Hudnut has created a page on www.caringbridge.org to keep people updated on his situation.