PAT FORDICE, 72 First lady of Mississippi
Pat Fordice, a former first lady of Mississippi and a champion of the arts, literacy and beautification projects, died Thursday, her family said.
Mrs. Fordice became a public figure after her husband, Kirk Fordice, a brash millionaire construction company owner, was elected in 1991 as Mississippi's first Republican governor since Reconstruction.
She was instrumental in bringing two popular international art exhibitions to Jackson.
In 1996, Palaces of St. Petersburg: Russian Imperial Style featured tapestries, china, paintings and other glittering objects. Two years later, The Splendors of Versailles featured French treasures.
The Fordices divorced in 2000 after 44 years of marriage. Mr. Fordice died of leukemia in 2004 at age 70.
After leaving the governor's mansion in January 2000, Mrs. Fordice remained active as host of a radio talk show and co-host of a television talk show for Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
She also appeared in a series of commercials for Keep Mississippi Beautiful and the Mississippi Department of Transportation as part of an anti-littering campaign.
In recent years, Mrs. Fordice supported the children's hospital at the University of Mississippi, the Mississippi School for the Arts, the International Ballet Competition and the Special Olympics.
EDWARD KURIANSKY, 63 N.Y. prosecutor
Edward J. Kuriansky, a leading prosecutor in New York state's nursing home scandals in the 1970s, the state's chief prosecutor for Medicaid fraud in the 1980s and early 1990s, and New York City's investigations commissioner in the Giuliani administration, died of colon cancer Tuesday in Manhattan.
Mr. Kuriansky was a senior managing director at Citigate Global Intelligence. From 1980 to 1995, he was the deputy state attorney general in charge of investigating Medicaid fraud. The program pays the medical costs of poor people. Before that, he was the chief assistant to Charles J. Hynes, the current Brooklyn district attorney, who in the 1970s was the state's special deputy attorney general investigating the nursing home industry. In that capacity, Mr. Kuriansky ran an 18-month undercover operation that led to the conviction of more than 50 nursing home officials and suppliers for involvement in extensive kickback schemes.
Previously, Mr. Kuriansky had handled the federal District Court case that upheld the conviction of Bernard Bergman, the owner of two Manhattan nursing homes who was found guilty of Medicaid and tax fraud in 1976. It was the Bergman case that opened up the scandal over the lack of proper health care for patients and the considerable profits reaped by some nursing home owners from unmonitored government programs.
In 1982, two years after Mr. Kuriansky replaced Mr. Hynes as special deputy attorney general, the House Select Committee on Aging issued a report saying that although most states were doing a poor job of policing Medicaid fraud, New York state was doing an excellent job. The report said that Mr. Hynes and Mr. Kuriansky had "changed New York from the least effective to the most effective state in terms of Medicaid fraud detection and prosecution."
Mr. Kuriansky was born in Stamford, Conn. He graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1966 and received his law degree from Harvard University in 1969. For two years after law school, Mr. Kuriansky was a clerk for U.S. District Judge Morris E. Lasker in Manhattan. He was then appointed an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
In 1996, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani appointed Mr. Kur- iansky commissioner of the city's Department of Investigations.
Among numerous investigations he pursued in his six years in the post were cases in which more than 600 people, including 200 city employees, were arrested in connection with the theft of more than $8 million in welfare payments. In one case, government workers created false identity documents for 50 nonexistent children to defraud the welfare system.
Mr. Kuriansky sometimes used unusual investigative techniques. In 1987, when he was the special Medicaid prosecutor, he revealed that three years earlier he recruited a 78-year-old retired social worker, Muriel Clark, as an undercover agent. Clark became the central figure of a nine-month investigation in which nursing homes took bribes from her supposed "son" to accept her as a resident.
"She did a really gutsy thing," Mr. Kuriansky said at the time.
RAYMOND PETERSEN, 88 Magazine executive
Raymond J. Petersen, a trustee of the Hearst Family Trust and a member of the board of directors of Hearst Corp., as well as former executive vice president of Hearst Magazines, died July 11 in Palm Beach, Fla.
In 1963, Mr. Petersen was elected a member of Hearst Corp.'s board of directors; four years later he was appointed senior vice president of Hearst Magazines. In 1969, Mr. Petersen was appointed a trustee of the Hearst Family Trust and a director of the Hearst Foundations. Over the years, Mr. Petersen was known for his support of numerous charities and religious and civic organizations.
"Ray's tireless service to Hearst Corp., the trust, and the foundations, as well as to countless charities and other worthy organizations, was an inspiration to us all," said Victor F. Ganzi, president and chief executive officer of Hearst Corp. "We will miss him greatly."
"His diversity of knowledge and work meant a great deal to the company," said George R. Hearst Jr., chairman of the board of Hearst Corp. and president of the Hearst Foundation. "Speaking on behalf of the Hearst family, we were very fortunate to have had a person of Ray's stature helping us as a member of our executive team."
Said Frank A. Bennack, Jr., vice chairman of the board of Hearst Corp. and chairman of Hearst's executive committee: "Ray was a consummate salesman and his knowledge of the advertising business helped the growth of many Hearst titles and our other businesses. His contribution to the success of Good Housekeeping, from ad salesman to publishing director over five decades, is unexcelled. Outside of Hearst, he helped establish the advertising industry's self-regulatory bodies and was active and effective as a spokesman against government interference in advertising. He was a pioneer on all fronts as well as a great family man."
Mr. Bennack was CEO of Hearst during 23 years of Mr. Petersen's tenure there.
Mr. Petersen served in the Army during World War II and was awarded the Bronze Star.
He joined Hearst Corp. in 1948 as an advertising salesperson for Good Housekeeping. Mr. Petersen became the magazine's fashion advertising manager, later its advertising director, and in 1960 was named publisher and vice president of Hearst Magazines. In 1973, he was appointed executive vice president of Hearst Magazines.
Among his numerous civic and charitable activities, Mr. Petersen served on the board of governors of St. Vincent's Hospital, Montclair, N.J., as a member of the advisory board of St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center, Harrison, N.Y., and as a director and member of the executive board of the Boy Scouts, Greater New York Council. He was designated a Knight of Malta, one of the highest honors in the Catholic Church, in 1964 by Pope John XXIII.
Mr. Petersen also served as a vice president and member of the board of directors of the United Service Organizations and served on the chairman's committee of the United Cerebral Palsy Campaign Fund. He was a member of the boards of directors of the American Friends of the Jerusalem Mental Health Center, the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club, the National Crime Prevention Council, and he was an honorary adviser to the board of directors of the Children of Alcoholics Foundation. He also served as director of the corporate board of Covenant House, and as national chairman for Religion in American Life, which gave him its Charles E. Wilson Award in 1985.
Mr. Petersen was also active in the educational sector, serving as a member of the Business Committees of Montclair State College and St. Lawrence University, and as a member of the advisory board of Webber College. He received an honorary doctorate in journalism from St. Joseph's College in 1966. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed him a commissioner of the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science.
Mr. Petersen served on the boards of directors of several corporations and business institutions, including Supermarkets General, International Capital and Technology Corp., A.C. Daily Income Fund Inc., Southwest Forest Industries and Knox Lumber Co.
He served on the board of governors of the Academy of Food Marketing of St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia, and on the board of trustees of the Consumer Research Institute of the Grocery Manufacturers of America Inc. He was also a director of the Executive Committee of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, and later was named vice chairman of its board of directors.
Within the advertising industry, Mr. Petersen served as a director of the Brand Names Foundation, the Magazine Advertising Bureau and the Coty Awards Committee. He was an honorary director of the New York Advertising Club, a member of the Advertising Council's Magazine Committee, a member of the Public Service Advisory Committee of the Communications Industries Council, and chairman of the national Advertising Review Council.
He was named chairman of the American Advertising Federation in 1978. In 1986, he was elected to the Advertising Hall of Fame, which is administered by the American Advertising Federation; he was inducted in 1987.
Mr. Petersen is survived by his wife, Gayle; eight children; and two stepchildren.