William Edward “Bill” Clark

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – William Edward “Bill” Clark, who headed the company that built the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, has died. He was 63.

He died Tuesday of cancer at his home. The death was confirmed in a statement by Lloyd Garrison, president of CDI contractors, which Clark and Dillard’s Inc. founded in 1987.

Clark was chairman and chief executive officer of CDI Contractors. Under his direction, CDI grew into one of the state’s leading construction companies, with revenues of more than $300 million.

Clark joined his brothers at C&C Electric Construction Co. in Little Rock after graduating from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He worked with his brothers until 1981 when he bought Braggs Electric Construction Co.

Clark was also a past president or chairman of the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees, the Arkansas Arts Center, St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center and other organizations.

His friends have set up the Bill Clark Presidential Park Wetlands, an educational exhibit that includes the restoration wetlands on the banks of the Arkansas River in the Clinton Presidential Park.

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Herbert L. Harper

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Herbert L. Harper, the former director of the Tennessee Historical Commission, has died. He was 78.

Harper was taken to Williamson County Medical Center from his home in Franklin early Saturday morning, said Richard Tune, who succeeded Harper as executive director. He was placed in intensive care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he died Monday.

Harper, a well-known figure among historical groups in the state, retired from his position in October after serving as director for 31 years.

Born in Clemmons, N.C., Harper was a partner in a Nashville real estate and construction firm for several years before joining the state’s historical department.

He started at the Historical Commission as the director of field services in 1969. In 1975, he served as the executive director position in 1975 until his retirement last year.

Harper drafted the first plan for historic preservation in Tennessee in 1970 and was responsible for nominating some of the first properties in Tennessee to the National Register of Historic Places.

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Lauren Terrazzano

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) – Lauren Terrazzano, a Newsday reporter who chronicled her three-year bout with lung cancer in a column, has died. She was 39.

The writer’s death on Tuesday night at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City was announced to the Newsday staff on Wednesday morning in a letter from editor John Mancini.

After graduating from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 1994, Terrazzano worked briefly at the New York Daily News and the Record in Hackensack, N.J., before joining Newsday in 1996.

Described by colleagues as a tenacious, hard-nosed street reporter, Terrazzano covered a variety of beats, most recently as a child welfare/social services reporter. She began writing the column, “Life, With Cancer,” in October.

Terrazzano, who wrote in an April 17 column that she had smoked on and off for about five years, also took shots at the tobacco marketers and opined about aspiring first lady Elizabeth Edwards’ battle with cancer and about the stress the disease has on loved ones, all the while trying to maintain a sense of humor and humanity.

Although she said she used the column to vent her own frustrations with cancer, it quickly won praise from others in the same situation.

Terrazzano’s column won the top prize this year in the science/health reporting category of a contest run by the Silurians, the oldest press club in the United States. The award ceremony was scheduled for Thursday night.

The Newswomen’s Club of New York cited her column for outstanding achievement, and she was also named the recipient of the 2007 Joanie Award from the Joan Scarangello Foundation to Conquer Lung Cancer.

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