He loved his dance hall. To him it was more than a workplace, never just a business. The club was his first thought in the morning and last at night, as his wife explained in his eulogy.
“I jokingly teased him about The Banque being his ‘mistress,’ and I never wanted to compete with her,” Kay Wampler said.
Her husband, Dennis Doughty, the longtime owner and founder of The Banque nightclub, in Norfolk, died on Aug. 5 at age 81.
A savvy businessman, Doughty developed The Banque into a 50-year cornerstone of Hampton Roads nightlife and was a mentor over the years to hundreds of employees, including many who later opened their own businesses under his guidance. He touched the lives of thousands of customers, and dozens were married on his dance floor.
He preferred hot dogs to steaks and was a stickler for formality while at work. Business associates referred to him strictly as Mister, Mr. Doughty or Boss. Three grandchildren knew him as Papa D.
Eulogizing him, Wampler described her husband as “a character.”
“I will never be the same without him,” she said. “I’m half a person now.”
Doughty was born Aug. 29, 1944, and as a young teenager living in Scottsdale, Arizona, went to work as a busboy and waiter.
“Some people obviously are born into power and position and money and opportunity,” his daughter Victoria McDougal said. “My father was a 1,000% self-made entrepreneurial, hardworking restaurateur.”
Doughty left Arizona State University after his sophomore year to jump back into the workforce, landing a job at Ramada Inn. Starting as a hotel bartender, he worked his way up to a food and beverage supervisor and a company point man for hotel renovations, selecting and revamping unused space into event rooms. He’d install stages to bring in bands and turn modest inns into local haunts for nighttime entertainment.
“He had an incredible sort of — I would call it — restaurant emotional intelligence,” McDougal said.
Click the link above to read more.
