Theiss, 84, of Coral Gables, was president/CEO of Arthur Murray International. Theiss had begun kidney dialysis a year ago, said his wife of 31 years, Georgia Theiss. He died of renal complications. Theiss started with Arthur Murray as an instructor in 1947, went on to manage 23 franchises and became president in 1965. He hung on during periods when ballroom's popularity dimmed but lived long enough to revel in its resurgence, triggered by ABC's hit show Dancing with the Stars, which he never missed. He took the company beyond the nation's borders, reasoning that dancers from all cultures could find common ground on the ballroom floor. It now has 225 studios in 14 countries.

Quietly elegant at 6-foot-2, he believed that what he called "touch-dancing" could transform lives, as it did his. 'He said to me, 'I'm trying to help the world discover dancing cheek-to-cheek,' " said his wife. "He thought it was a healthy, fun, uplifting and healing hobby." "He thought that dance could turn people from being wallflowers to being the life of the party," added Thomas Murdock, Arthur Murray's marketing/promotion vice president.

Theiss -- a social dancer who loved the foxtrot and tango -- was a "good trendspotter," said Murdock, bringing home dances from abroad and incorporating them into the company's repertoire. When ballroom's post-war allure waned in the anything-goes '60s and disco '70s, Theiss embraced new styles, especially Latin dances.

Theiss was born in Sublette, Ill., one of a farm couple's 12 children. He served in the U.S. Army's Transportation Division from 1943-46, then worked in a Chicago-area retail store. Evenings, Theiss and his brother Leonard "were going to the ballrooms in Chicago, watching all these slick guys getting the girls, and they decided to take lessons in Rockford," said Georgia Theiss. The studio owner "was so impressed that he asked them to join the training staff." When the Murrays decided to retire in 1963, Theiss and other franchisees bought the business. At the time, Murdock said, "there were upwards of 400 dance studios." He moved the company to Coral Gables in 1968.

The father of four divorced, and married his current wife in 1975. Raised Catholic, he converted to her faith: Greek Orthodox. Theiss sat on the boards of directors of the World Federation of Ballroom Dancers and the American Ballroom Company, which organizes the United States DanceSport Championships, and advocated for ballroom dance as an Olympic event. He once said that ballroom dance "is a rigorous activity that uses the larger muscle groups and is . . . usually done over the course of an hour or an entire evening.," Theiss once said. "It's most frequently compared to ice dancing, and no one would question the athletic ability of an ice skater."