Remembering Billy Ruane

I first met Billy Ruane in the early 1990s, at the Middle East rock club. I didn’t know him well, but he was a fixture in the local music community and once you met him, you would see him all the time, out and about in music venues as well as other arts events in Cambridge. I came across him again 15 years later while I was on the board of the Brattle Film Foundation. His support for Cambridge arts institutions never dwindled; he was an ardent supporter of the Brattle. Alas, Billy passed away in 2010.

Today, I signed a petition to support the designation of an official square named in the City of Cambridge as a tribute to Billy Ruane. (The corner of Brookline and Green streets seem particularly fitting.) His energy and ability to connect defined what it meant to be part of a community and Cambridge should honor that.

A recent Boston Globe article highlighting the campaign also notes, “There’s also a chance that Michael Gill’s documentary about Ruane, which has been in the works for a while, will be finished by the fall.” As a supporter of that campaign back in 2010, I hope that’s true.