Steve Turner, CMHOFM Champion & Nashville Developer, Passes Away

/by

Steve Turner. Photo: Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Steve Turner, chairman emeritus and longtime board chair for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, passed away today (Feb. 11) at age 77.

“Steve Turner’s leadership and vision changed Nashville in many ways. But nowhere was his influence more transformative than with our museum. As a longtime board chairman, he saw what our museum should be, what it aspired to be — and made it so,” shares Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Musuem, in a statement.

“He found new opportunities for us, forged crucial deals, and spearheaded a museum expansion in 2014 that more than doubled our size and multiplied our reach exponentially. He was a businessman with the soul of a creative artist and the heart of a champion. Simply put, he inspired us and made our museum the success it is today.”

Turner was born in Scottsville, Kentucky and was raised working in the family business, the Dollar General Corporation, founded by his father, Cal Turner Sr. He served as an executive for the company for 20 years before leaving at age 40 to go his own way.

The Vanderbilt University graduate settled in Nashville in 1986 with his wife Judy, and became focused on investing and real estate development, particularly in Nashville’s urban core. He spearheaded several developments south of Broadway, including the Gulch, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Turners generously supported many philanthropic causes in Nashville, but his focus on the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum was transformative for the institution. He joined museum’s board in 1997, serving as Chairman from 2008 through 2021.

His tenure with the organization included negotiating a complicated public-private partnership involving the museum, Metro Nashville government and the Omni Hotels & Resorts. The result more than doubled the museum’s size, connected the Omni Hotel Nashville with the museum through a stylish shopping corridor, and helped the city anchor the new Music City Center convention hall, which opened in 2013.

Turner also demonstrated crucial leadership in the museum’s capital campaign that enabled the expansion. Thanks to successful fundraising and careful financial stewardship, the museum erased its building debts and markedly expanded its programming, allowing Turner to further push the organization to offer Middle Tennessee youth free admission under a new program, Community Counts.

He and wife Judy also conceived and funded an innovative partnership between the museum and the Nashville Public Library resulting in “String City: Nashville’s Tradition of Music and Puppetry,” an acclaimed puppet show that tells the story of country music and has played to thousands of families, children and adults in Middle Tennessee.

Services have not yet been announced.

LB Cantrell
Latest posts by LB Cantrell (see all)