Going on three years ago, Gov. JB Pritzker came to Macomb to break ground on Western Illinois University’s Center for the Performing Arts, a project decades in the making.
Sitting behind the speakers that day was a man in dark-colored sunglasses with his hands often clasped in excitement, in a state of what can only be described as glee — glee for WIU, its students, faculty, and the entire region.
That man was William T. “Billy” Clow, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at WIU — a man who came to western Illinois in 2012 to be part of the dream to build a Center for Performing Arts.
The Macomb and Western Illinois University communities are mourning the loss of Clow, who was a passionate educator and true advocate for the arts.
He died April 17 after a three-year battled with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He was 63.
Clow believed the Center for the Performing Arts was much more than a building, which is why he didn’t want it to be called a performing arts center.
“Performing arts center to me, and maybe that’s just semantics, I looked at that as a building,” Clow said in an interview with TSPR. “It’s just a place, right?”
So Clow suggested WIU’s new building be called a Center for Performing Arts instead.
“Because to me, that says, this is the center for the arts in this region, and we are more than just a building on a campus,” he said. “We are the arts and are representing that for the entire region, from south of I-80, to Missouri, to Iowa, to Peoria, and beyond.”
Clow worked with faculty, staff, and external partners to design a multi-functional facility with classroom and performance spaces, and he shepherded the project through supply chain issues and rising construction costs.
He told TSPR in 2022 the design was tight, highly functional, and student-focused.
“There were originally things like offices for the dean, new offices for the dean, and while that would be lovely to have a great new building and offices and things, that didn't seem important enough to me to trade that out for the opportunity to have classroom and performance spaces and things for students. And I think that's what matters most. And so we've done that, right? I don't need a new office. I need spaces for my students to be in where they can learn and have the best opportunity for them for graduation and beyond,” Clow said.
Last year, Clow got to announce that WIU Center for the Performing Arts would be named after his mentor, President Emeritus Al Goldfarb.
Clow’s passion for the arts and storytelling started in high school when he discovered a love for theatrical lighting. He studied theatre and creative writing at the University of Missouri, then got an MFA in theatrical design at Illinois State University.
Before coming to WIU, Clow taught at Stephens College, the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, and the University of Montevallo.
He was also a champion for public radio, overseeing TSPR through some challenging times.
TSPR General Manager Heather Norman said Clow cared deeply about the station, and he made a point to get to know the staff personally.
“I think that's true of everyone who worked with him,” Norman said. “Billy was a friendly man and he was easy to talk to. He wasn’t just interested in your bottom line or your production. He was interested in you as a person.”
Norman said TSPR will miss Clow tremendously. And like so many people, she’ll think of him every time she goes by or goes inside WIU’s Center for the Performing Arts.
“It does break my heart that he will not see that completed. He was a huge champion, not only for us, for all the departments within COFAC,” Norman said. “But that building. That building was his everything. What he worked for was the crowning moment of his career. And I am sorry he will not be here to see it finished.”
To learn more about Clow’s legacy, visit wiu.edu/honorbilly.
Clow’s wife and children plan to throw a “Big Billy Party” in August to celebrate him.
Donations in his memory can be made to the Al Goldfarb Center for the Performing Arts at Western Illinois University.
