Hudson Day Willse III, Aug. 3, 1934 - May 10, 2025
Hudson Day Willse, beloved Montana sports writer and editor, died on May 10 in his home surrounded by family. He was 90.
Hud was born in Jamestown, New York, on August 3, 1934, to Hudson Day Willse Jr., a fire equipment salesman, and Marjorie Emaline Short, a longtime society editor for the Buffalo Courier Express. Hud grew up in Buffalo with his younger brother, Duane. Although he spent much of his adult life away from New York, he remained true to the Buffalo Bills until his last breath.
After high school, Hud served in the U.S. Army for two years before attending Bowling Green State University in Ohio, where he studied history and journalism. It was here that he met his lovely wife, Janet Kaye Pearson. They were married for 65 years.
Upon graduation, Hud followed in his mother's footsteps, working for a few smaller newspapers in Ohio before moving his family to Montana in pursuit of a journalism career. After a short stint in Billings, he took a sports editing job in Butte at The Montana Standard in 1969, where he worked for 27 years. During that time, he established himself as a local's local, covering everything from little league baseball to college football and earning numerous accolades for his work, including the National Sportscasters & Sportswriters Association Montana Sportswriter of the Year (1976). He was inducted into the Butte Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 for "(providing) Butte with the best local coverage of athletes in Montana."
Outside of sportswriting, Hud was known as a kindhearted family man. He had six children - Hudson, Dawn, Alan, Mark, Angie, and Chanda - raised in the well-loved yellow house on Argyle Street in Butte. The yellow house is fondly remembered by family and friends as a gathering place Hud filled with lots of books, sports history, and dry humor.
Hud and Jan retired to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2006, where Hud lived out the rest of his life, still reading, still watching sports, and still dishing out witty one-liners his family will quote for years to come. Hud is survived by his wife Jan, six children, 10 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his grandson Austen Cole Palke.
At Hud's request, there will be no funeral services. Send your condolences in the form of cheers and well wishes for the Buffalo Bills as they chase a Super Bowl title.