Hampton also was a former executive of The State newspaper and a descendant of its founders.
"If anybody embodied the term Renaissance man, it was he," longtime friend Hagood Ellison of Columbia said. "He was a quiet philanthropist who had a marvelous range of interests."
Hampton chose to remain in medicine rather than be groomed to take charge of The State in the late 1960s, according to the company history "Palmettos and Oaks." He served as secretary of the newspaper's executive committee for several years until its acquisition by Knight Ridder.
As a physician, Hampton appeared in local films on medical care and wrote articles for national publications on treatment of heart ailments. He was an adviser on emergency medical care for local and state agencies and taught health care at USC.
"His patients loved him," said retired physician Hugh DuBose of Columbia, Hampton's partner for 30 years. "He had the personality to go with scientific knowledge. He was a complete physician."
He was an avid jazz fan and musician and a well-known art collector.
"He really knew about everybody in the (jazz) business," said Dick Goodwin, a music professor at USC. "He had an encyclopedic memory."
Besides contributing to music, dance and theater groups, Hampton was a leader of the Columbia Music Festival Association, Columbia Museum of Art and the Jazz Foundation of Columbia. He was a former member of the Spoleto Festival board in Charleston and South Carolina Museum Commission.
"He did a lot to make things happen," Goodwin said.
Plans are pending for a memorial service.
Survivors include his wife, Joanne; a daughter, Ann LaVecchia
of Sullivan's Island; a son, Anthony of Columbia; a stepdaughter, Tracy
Sutherland of Columbia; a sister, Henriette Morris of Columbia; and three
grandchildren.