From a bombing to Lady Gaga, former Hearst Castle museum director has seen it all
Hoyt Fields found himself spellbound on Dec. 17, 1969.
His new bosses, Bill and Austine Hearst, had just taken the wide-eyed 16-year-old to see where he would work part of the time under their employ: Hearst Castle.
It was love at first sight for Fields, whose intense passion for publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst’s San Simeon estate has lasted more than a half century.
“Walking up those stairs for the first time and seeing the façade of the main house … I was in awe,” recalled Fields, a San Luis Obispo County native.
“I’d never seen anything like that before,” Hoyt said.
Now, more than five decades later, Fields is still at Hearst Castle, albeit as a part-time, retired annuitant employee of State Parks.
“Some people say they dread going to work, even when they have good jobs. I’ve always loved it, going to work. I still do,” he said. “I love the drive up the hill, seeing the sunrise, the wildflowers in the field…”
Hearst Castle employee is SLO County native
Fields was born in 1953 to parents Paul and Doris Fields at what is now French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, then called Mountain View Hospital.
His family lived in Harmony then. Hoyt Fields went to Cambria schools from first grade on, missing out on kindergarten, “because we were 8 miles out and my parents couldn’t come to get me after a half-day at school,” he said.
Paul Fields’ work as a cabinetmaker took him all over the county, and Doris Fields, a Morro Bay native, worked for decades at the Morro Bay branch of Bank of America.
Then their son went to work for the Hearst family, working at Hearst Castle and the Hearsts’ horse ranch. During that time, he graduated from Coast Union High School in Cambria in 1971.
The Hearsts were kind and considerate bosses, Hoyt Fields said, treating him and his wife, Betsy, like family.
But by 1974, “as a married man with a wife, two children, a mortgage and a car payment,” Fields said, he needed the security of a long-term job with benefits.
He took the civil service test and joined the parks staff as a museum custodian for the princely sum of $3.01 an hour.
Fields reported for State Parks duty on Dec. 17, 1974, exactly five years from his first day working for the Hearst family.
Over the decades, Fields worked his way up from that entry-level position to assistant supervising housekeeper, curator levels 1 and 3, chief curator and — the ultimate post for him — museum director in 2000.
“It’s tough,” Fields said. “You have to compete against the best of the best.”
As Hearst Castle museum director, he led the way to a high honor for the facility that has captivated him for so long.
In April 2000, after a nearly two-year application-and-vetting process, the American Association of Museums — now known as the American Alliance of Museums — designated Hearst Castle an accredited historic house art museum. That coveted designation has been awarded to only 850 of the more than 4,800 museums that have taken the alliance’s pledge of excellence.
Fields is proud of that accomplishment and “bringing the Castle, State Parks and the community together, being open to changes and to new partnerships that we developed with locals and with the international museum community,” he said.
“We’re so fortunate that the Hearst family left the Castle intact, with 25,000 pieces of art,” Fields said. Of William Randolph Hearst, he said, “We’re living his dream now,” a dream of having all that art available so everybody can see, enjoy and appreciate it.
For a few months in 2003, Fields was even designated interim district superintendent/museum director, after his then-boss, Kirk Sturm, was kicked upstairs into a higher level of State Parks management.
Fields retired, sort of, in 2013, but has stayed on as a retired annuitant ever since. He lives in Los Osos.
Bombing, earthquake and celebrity encounters at Hearst Castle
His time at Hearst Castle has been filled with high drama, long days, impressive accomplishments and lots of celebrity encounters.
Fields was there when guest house Casa del Sol was bombed in February 1976, causing more than $1 million in damage, and through the intense security measures implemented after that.
During his tenure, he’s also experienced prolonged closures of Highway 1, state government turmoil, budget cuts and the formation of the Hearst Castle Citizens Committee, which became Friends of Hearst Castle and, now, The Foundation at Hearst Castle.
He saw the Castle’s highest peak in attendance, when more than a million people visited the estate in fiscal year 1988 to 1989, and survived the San Simeon earthquake in 2003.
Fields was there when new daytime tours were added, and when they were changed. He was instrumental in establishing the popular evening tours and worked with Friends of Hearst Castle to get outdoor night lighting installed so those tours would be safe.
Fields also went through all the complex federal hoops to get an official Christmas Hearst Castle postage stamp released in May 2009.
He has also led plenty of tours for high-profile folks.
Among his most memorable celebrity encounters, he said, was when he spent the day with Eunice Kennedy Shriver. “She had so many stories about the Kennedy family and their connection to the Hearsts,” Fields said. “It gave me chills.”
Shriver collected artwork showing the Madonna and Child, he said, and after her tour, she commented that “‘Hoyt, there are more Madonna and Child (artworks) here at the Castle than in the Vatican,’ and I know she’d been there, too.”
Fields enjoyed his daylong tour with Mel Gibson and then-wife, Robyn, who, he said, who were “absolutely gracious.”
And the former museum director loved “hosting directors of other museums. They’ve all been here,” Fields said.
Fields has given tours to Barbra Steisand, Cher, Jennifer Aniston, Jane Russell and Rob Lowe, as well as Brad Pitt and his sociable southerner parents and Maria Shriver and other members of the Kennedy family, including Robert Kennedy Jr.
Fields hosted “California’s Gold” television host Huell Howser twice, noting that the second visit was a doozy.
And, of course, there was Lady Gaga’s controversial music video shoot at Hearst Castle in 2014. Yes, Fields had retired by then, but he was there anyway.
He’s worked with a series of superintendents, hundreds of guides and an assortment of talented conservators, among others. But Fields is never too busy to stop and answer a question for a visitor who wants to know more about the Castle he loves so much.
Praise for Hoyt Fields
Stephen Hearst, vice president of the Hearst Corp. and great grandson of William Randolph Hearst, had high praise for Fields.
“I know of no other individual with his level of knowledge, passion and dedication to the Castle, State Parks and the Hearst family,” Steve Hearst said, noting that “he was able to work between those groups” even when there were disagreements and disputes.
Hearst called Hoyt as a longtime friend and “a highly trusted counsel for me.” With Fields continuing to work as a retired annuitant, Hearst said, State Parks “should take advantage of all the institutional knowledge he has as long as he’s willing to offer it.”
Others agree.
For more than 11 years, Nick Franco was superintendent of the state parks district that includes Hearst Castle, and worked closely with Fields. Since 2015, Franco has been the director of San Luis Obispo County Parks & Recreation.
“Hoyt and Hearst Castle are wonderfully entwined for me and always will be,” Franco wrote in an email. “I can’t think of one without the other. Hoyt’s love of the castle and sharing that with the public and preserving it for future generations is a great gift to all of us, and I am so happy that he blessed all of us with his commitment to this treasure on the Central Coast.
“When you think that this National Historic Landmark is now 100 years old and for half of that time, Hoyt has been a critical part of its story, that is an amazing example of following your passion,” Franco continued. “The castle wouldn’t be what it is today without Hoyt (and, I think, Hoyt wouldn’t be who he is without the castle!). I love them both.”
Fields’ current boss, district Superintendent Dan Falat, also speaks glowingly about the man he calls “an invaluable asset, an outstanding person who always represents the Castle in the highest professional manner.” He considers Fields a close personal friend.
Falat assigns Fields primarily to oversee and advise on special projects — such as recent work on the main house’s roof and the complete renovation of the Neptune Pool.
But the retiree still fills a lot of slots at the Castle.
“There are very few people with his type of historical background and knowledge of the Castle. In fact, probably nobody,” Falat said, adding that Fields “brings a huge opportunity for people to learn and understand how we are where we are and the reason behind it.”
With his “wealth of knowledge about the Castle in general,” Falat said, Fields has been a mentor to many, with his “unpretentious approach” and his ability to brainstorm and impart information without being pushy about it.
“He was the one who sparked my passion for the Castle,” the superintendent said, “and he never loses sight of what the place really represents … “
“You have to understand the past to know where you are today and what your pathway is for the future. Hoyt does,” Falat said, “and with his ties to the county, the local area, to the Castle and the Hearst family, he understands the Castle better than anybody else.”
Fields, he added, also is “one of the happiest people around, just for the right to be here. You can only hope for that kind of passion for your job after 50 years.”
Favorite moments at San Simeon estate
Thinking back on his Hearst Castle career, Fields talked about some of his most memorable experiences — such as the time when a female executive sat in his office, looking out over the Hearst Ranch fields, and asked, “Who mows the grass, Hoyt?” His simple answer: “The cattle.”
But his favorite moment on the Castle hilltop was Aug. 5, 1973, he said without hesitation. That was the day he and Betsy got married at Casa del Mar, the largest of the estate’s guest houses.
Fields’ favorite Hearst Castle artworks are the Sekhmet sculptures of the Egyptian goddess, the oldest artworks at the estate’s grounds.
His favorite artist is “Julia Morgan, for the beauty of what she created,” Fields said. “Because she was not only an architect, engineer and interior designer,” in an era when women weren’t supposed to do such things, “but she also was an amazing artist.”
Hoyt and Betsy Fields’ family includes three children: Eric, Ryan and Tessa, plus grandchildren Caleb, 18, Bryce, 14, and Dawson, 10.
Hoyt Fields’ sister, Vicki Willey, and her husband, Brent, live in Morro Bay, as does their mother, Doris Fields. Their dad, Paul Fields, died in 2019.
In his spare time, Hoyt Fields said, he loves to garden, travel to other state parks with Betsy, and read about history.
“I’m reading now about the de Medicis and Borgias,” he said, “and I love the books by Daniel Silva” about an Israeli art restorer, spy and assassin.
Fields is also a doggone good cook who adores chicken stew and polenta, and loves make “cream puffs and chocolate mousse,” he said.
For the latter, he uses a recipe that Austine Hearst got out of a magazine. “One day she said, ‘Hoyt, look at this! Let’s try this recipe,’ “ he recalled.
“I have a passion for it all,” Fields said. “I always will. I’m very lucky.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
