Hearst heir to be Cambria’s 2024 Pinedorado parade marshal
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The marshal for the Cambria Lions Club’s annual Pinedorado parade on Aug. 31 will be an international media mogul with ties to the small town, San Luis Obispo County and California, club leaders told The Tribune recently.
William R. “Will” Hearst III, 74, is chairman of the board of the media giant Hearst Corp., based in New York and San Francisco.
He’s a grandson of William Randolph Hearst, who built the corporation and Hearst Castle in San Simeon.
Pinedorado and its parade have been an annual event in Cambria since about 1949, except during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Will Hearst “has attended Pinedorado since early childhood, an event he still attends and passionately supports,” along with his dedication to supporting local businesses, Greg Aitkens, 2024 parade chairman and past president of the club, told The Tribune recently.
Some other Hearst family members have participated in past parades and Pinedorado celebrations, which strut, drive, walk, dance and wiggle up Main Street on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.
Hearst’s father, William R. Hearst Jr., was again the event’s grand marshal in 1957, according to the Cambria Historical Society’s archives of The Cambrian newspaper. He was accompanied by his sons, Will and Austin Hearst, and crooner Bing Crosby.
Hearst ranch hands and cowboys, along with owners of area ranches, also rode in the parades.
Will Hearst is continuing the family’s Arabian horse operation in San Simeon, which began in the early 1900s.
He also brought cable television to the tiny town, founding the San Simeon Community Cable service in 1982.
Will Hearst, a 1972 graduate of Harvard University, also is the editor and publisher of Alta Journal, which he founded in 2017.
He is president of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and a director of The Hearst Foundation, having been actively engaged in the charitable activities and programs of the Hearst Foundations for the last 20 years, according the Hearst Corp. website.
He also sponsored and led a historical retrospective symposium at Cuesta College in 2005 about area and Hearst history. The daylong, information-sharing session included scholars, biographers, authors, historians and other Hearst experts from all over the country.
Hearst and some other family members also have contributed to and supported the Cambria Historical Society’s restoration of the Santa Rosa Schoolhouse Museum and Education Center, one of Cambria’s original schools.
The Tribune reached out to Hearst for comment, but he didn’t respond immediately.
