Eugene Hosmer, convention advocate

Eugene C. Hosmer Jr., 90, of Rosemont, who as president of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau from 1969 to 1984 spearheaded the construction of the Convention Center, died of heart failure Monday, Jan. 31, at Wayne Center Nursing Home.

In 1978, Mr. Hosmer wrote a "white paper" stating that the city needed three things: a hotel-occupancy tax to help fund tourism; a convention center; and a 1,000-room convention hotel.

In that era, the hospitality business was not seen as the major economic engine that Philadelphia leaders now consider it to be. Mr. Hosmer later told The Inquirer that Frank L. Rizzo, who was then mayor, did not understand conventions.

"He called them a chance for a man to break a $10 bill and break the Ten Commandments," Mr. Hosmer said.

After William J. Green became mayor in 1980, interest in building a convention center picked up, and in 1982 the legislature agreed to fund the building. In the same period, the city adopted a hotel-occupancy tax.

Although the Convention Center and the adjacent Marriott hotel did not open until the early 1990s, "that's normal for a project of its size," Tom Muldoon told The Inquirer in 1996. Muldoon, who succeeded Mr. Hosmer as head of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said: "There weren't a lot of people listening when Gene first started. The positive part is, we got a better building."

After retiring from the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Mr. Hosmer spent 15 more years in the tourism industry. He consulted on the feasibility of building convention centers with the governments of Egypt, Taiwan, Russia, and the Czech Republic, and donated his services, assisting the hospitality industry abroad, as a member of the International Association of Retired Executives.

Until 2006, he taught courses on hotel and convention bureau management at Widener and Temple Universities.

His perpetually upbeat personality suited Mr. Hosmer's role as a tourism booster. "I find there's so much zest and enjoyment in anything that's around me, I find it difficult not to have a good time. I wouldn't permit myself to be in a job I didn't like," he told The Inquirer in 1996.

He always had a positive attitude, said a son, Chandler. When a friend would talk about the good old days, he would argue that these are the good old days.

Mr. Hosmer was past president of the International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus; of SKAL, an international travel-industry association; and of the Philadelphia Rotary Club.

Growing up in Springfield, Mass., Mr. Hosmer sang in church choirs and studied the violin. He graduated from Williston Northampton School in Massachusetts.

During World War II, he served in the Army Air Force. As a singer, entertaining troops, he toured with Johnny Desmond and Tony Martin, and performed with Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band.

After his discharge, he sang on radio under the name Gene Shelton. To supplement his income, he worked at Retail Credit in Philadelphia, where he met his future wife, Evelyn Tiedeken.

When they married in 1952, he quit his radio gig and took a sales job with the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau. In 1962, he joined the Hawaii Convention and Visitors Bureau. He was head of sales for the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau from 1963 until returning to Philadelphia to head the bureau here.

Mr. Hosmer went skiing with his grandchildren when he was in his 70s. A nationally ranked senior tennis player, he played singles into his early 80s. He then replaced tennis with bicycling, and several times each summer biked a 12-mile loop at the Jersey Shore, his son said.

In addition to his wife and son Chandler, Mr. Hosmer is survived by a son, Christopher; a daughter, Anne Greenleaf; a sister; and six grandchildren.

A funeral will be at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, at Stretch Funeral Home, 236 E. Eagle Rd., Havertown. Friends may call from 10:30 a.m. Burial will be in St. Denis Cemetery, Havertown.