Dr. David DiChiera, the unlikely impresario whose cultural developments helped lead the way to redemption for downtown Detroit, died just before 10 p.m. Tuesday at his home in the Detroit Golf Course Community, said a spokesperson for Michigan Opera Theatre. He was 83 and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April 2017.

DiChiera was small of stature and surprisingly soft-spoken for a man who came to have such an enormous impact on Detroit’s cultural landscape. Indeed, the word people used most often to describe him was “kind,” followed quickly by more grandiose words like “visionary,” “groundbreaker” and “risk-taker.” He was all that and more.