Obituaries of note

CLARK KERR, 92, a University of California president who oversaw the school's huge expansion to accommodate baby boomers but was fired by Gov. Ronald Reagan for being too soft on student protesters, died Monday, UC Berkeley announced. As the head of the multicampus university from 1958 to 1967, he became a lightning rod of controversy when Reagan used the Berkeley Free Speech Movement in his campaign for governor in 1966.

PRISCILLA KIDDER, 86, whose wedding dresses adorned Princess Grace and the daughters of two presidents, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, died Sunday in Winchester, Mass.

BARRY BROADFOOT, 77, a journalist revered as Canada's most famous oral historian, died Sunday in the Vancouver Island town of Nanaimo. He wrote numerous books, including Ten Lost Years, an oral history of the Great Depression. It shot to the top of the Canadian bestseller lists when it was published in 1973 and eventually sold more than 200,000 copies.

AYATOLLAH SADEQ KHALKHALI, 77, who became known as the Iranian revolution's "Hanging Judge" for ordering summary executions after trials of only a few minutes, died Nov. 26 in Tehran. He was the most feared of the judges appointed soon after the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was deposed in 1979.

BARBER B. CONABLE JR., 81, a former World Bank president and a New York Republican congressman for 20 years died Sunday in Sarasota. He was his party's standard bearer on taxes, trade and Social Security. He moved to Florida this year from his longtime home in Alexander, N.Y. After years of loyally backing President Richard Nixon's policies, he felt betrayed during Watergate. He later refused to answer Nixon's letters or even attend his funeral.

BRUCE COOK, 71, a novelist who created Latino detective Chico Cervantes, died Nov. 16 in Los Angeles, his family said. Under the name Bruce Alexander, he wrote historical novels featuring blind 18th century sleuth Sir John Fielding. His most recent novel, the 10th with Fielding as the protagonist, was The Price of Murder, published this year.

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