AP Obits--11/8
ObitsMan
Obituaries in the News
By The Associated Press, Ervin Conradt, John Denman, Sir Ernst Gombrich, Hank
Gremminger, Herbert Hall McAdams II [Note: Roy Boulting (still containing that
error, btw) and Anthony Shaffer, which were repeats from 11/7, deleted]
SHIOCTON, Wis. (AP) - Ervin ``Butch'' Conradt, a former Wisconsin railroad
commissioner and former mayor of Seymour who spent 18 years in the state
Assembly, died Monday after a lengthy illness. He was 85.
Conradt, a Republican, first won election to the state Assembly in 1964.
He and former Gov. Tommy Thompson, who represented the Elroy area in the
Legislature, roomed together when they were in Madison for during legislative
sessions from 1968 to 1982.
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - John Denman, a clarinetist who was most recently artistic
adviser to the Tucson Symphony Orchestra's pops division, died Tuesday from
complications of esophageal cancer. He was 68.
Denman, a native of London, was a principal clarinetist for the orchestra for
more than 20 years.
Denman also played principal clarinet with the London Symphony Orchestra and
the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He taught music at Trinity College in England
before coming to teach at the University of Arizona.
He joined the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in the late 1970s.
In 1984, Denman left the University of Arizona after failing to receive tenure.
For the rest of his life, he focused on his performing career. He also designed
a small clarinet, the Kinder-Klari, to make practicing easier for young hands.
Denman performed and recorded with jazz icon Buddy DeFranco and was a member of
several jazz bands.
LONDON (AP) - Sir Ernst Gombrich, a historian whose definitive book ``The Story
of Art'' became a bible for artists and designers, died Saturday at the age of
92.
Sir Ernst, professor emeritus of history, had spent the last two years
virtually housebound because of his ailing health.
Sir Ernst was born in Vienna in March 1909. He was director of the Warburg
Institute, the University of London's art history research center, for 17 years
before retiring in 1976. He has been heralded as one of the most influential
art historians of his time.
He wrote more than 20 books on art, but it was ``The Story of Art'' - first
published in 1950 - that won him an army of fans. Accessible and comprehensive,
the book has seen 16 editions, sold six million copies worldwide and been
translated into 32 languages. It surveys the development of painting and
sculpture from prehistory to the modernist era.
During his prestigious career, he served as chairman on various bodies
including London's Royal College of Art. He was knighted in 1972.
WEATHERFORD, Texas (AP) - Hank Gremminger, the former Green Bay Packers
defensive back inducted in the team's Hall of Fame in 1976, died Nov. 2 at age
68.
Gremminger, who played for Green Bay from 1956 to 1965 after joining the team
as a seventh-round draft pick out of Baylor University, is eighth on the
Packers' career interceptions list with 28.
He left the NFL after playing for the Los Angeles Rams in 1966.
He was a retired building contractor and served as a Parker County (Texas)
commissioner at the time of his death.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Herbert Hall McAdams II, a prominent banker in
Arkansas for decades, died Tuesday. He was 86 and had prostate cancer.
McAdams, who had built a string of successful banks in northeastern Arkansas,
attained statewide prominence in 1970 with a $10 million investment in Union
National Bank at Little Rock, which at the time was struggling.
McAdams joined the Navy in 1943 and was severely burned when a destroyer on
which he was serving was struck by a Japanese kamikaze plane in the South
Pacific. He spent 18 months recuperating in hospitals.
McAdams' initial fortune - which eventually grew to an estimated $450 million -
stemmed from early stock purchases in Arkla Gas Co.
He was co-founder of Lake City's State Bank, which he later moved to Jonesboro,
where he bought Citizens Bank and merged the two in 1950. He later became
majority stockholder in the Bank of Nettleton and the Security Bank of
Paragould.