Our colleague Denys Hodson, who has died aged 84, was best known as an inspirational arts administrator. Judging by the quality and confidence of his writing when he was 17, however, he might have become a successful poet. Instead, after national service in the Palestine police force and a history degree from Oxford, he chose to go to into advertising, where he quickly made his mark.
But Denys found his true calling when, in an unexpected career change at the age of 42, he was appointed controller of arts and recreation by Thamesdown (later Swindon) borough council. Clearly impressed by his knowledge, vision and social commitment, the authority decided to back this very different kind of bureaucrat.
For 22 years, Denys led the council's outstanding arts and recreation department, appointing and fiercely supporting an extraordinary team of innovators and risk-takers who forged Swindon's reputation for public art, community dance and film alongside professional and amateur theatre facilities, one of the first new-style municipal leisure pools and important heritage initiatives.
An establishment figure in terms of upbringing and manners (born in Northleach, Gloucestershire, Denys was a son of the manse, with the British Indian army's irregular cavalry regiment Hodson's Horse in his family's pedigree), his instincts were nonetheless entirely egalitarian. This provided Swindon and its people with vibrant, accessible and forward-looking cultural opportunities, and the council's investment outstripped that of many larger urban authorities.
It was inevitable that Denys's influence would extend beyond the town where he worked. He twice served as chairman of Southern Arts and chaired England's Council of Regional Arts Associations – skilfully negotiating the minefields of regional cultural politics. He was a director of the Oxford Stage Company, a governor and deputy chair of the British Film Institute and in 1987 became vice-chairman of the Arts Council, where he played a crucial role in brokering relations with the regional arts boards in a period of some turmoil in the arts funding system during the government-imposed reorganisation of 1989-90.
He was made a CBE in 1981. In retirement, Denys applied his formidable networking skills and great personal charm to a range of voluntary appointments including chairing the Voluntary Arts Network, the national voice for the amateur sector and participation. Probably dearest to his heart was the lengthy and eventually successful restoration of the exceptional medieval stained-glass windows in his local church in Fairford, Gloucestershire, for which he was instrumental in raising more than £1m.
Denys enjoyed life with his beloved wife Julie, his children, grandchildren and wide circle of friends. He was a genial and generous host, affable, modest and capable of witty – wicked even – and incisive insights.
In 1954 Denys married Julie Goodwin. She died in 2009. Denys is survived by their children, Nicholas and Lucy.