Bill Davidson

Bill Davidson, Managing Partner of the Detroit Pistons and 2008 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, has passed away at the age 86. Memorial services are planned for noon on Tuesday at the Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield. During his tenure as owner, Davidson’s professional teams won seven world championships, three in the NBA, three in the WNBA and one in the National Hockey League. Palace Sports and Entertainment owned the Tampa Bay Lightning when that franchise won the Stanley Cup in 2004.

Davidson became the second owner in Pistons history in 1974, when he purchased the franchise from the late Fred Zollner. Davidson also had ownership stake in Palace Sports and Entertainment, the Detroit Shock, DTE Energy Music Center, Meadow Brook Music Festival and Guardian Industries, Incorporated, one of the world’s primary manufacturers of architectural and automotive glass.

Organizations and municipalities that have benefited from his generosity include the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the University of Michigan, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovet, Israel, the Karmanos Cancer Institute and Children’s Research Center of Michigan, the city of Detroit’s Parks and Recreation Department, Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem and countless others.