Deaths elsewhere

William Randolph (Randy) Adams, former head of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra who used his business acumen to save it from bankruptcy, has died. He was 64.

The symphony said Adams, who served as the symphony's president and executive director from August 2001 to June 2007, died Wednesday of pancreatic cancer.

Adams spent most of his career as a change agent for organizations such as the World Bank and Citibank. He joined the nation's second-oldest symphony in 2001, initially as a consultant, around the time when the orchestra faced possible bankruptcy.

Hortense Calisher, a prize-winning writer and former president of PEN known for her dense prose in such works of fiction as "False Entry" and "In Greenwich There Are Many Gravelled Walks," has died. She was 97.

Calisher died Tuesday in Manhattan of natural causes.

The author of more than 20 books, she was a three-time nominee for the National Book Award and a four-time winner of the O. Henry Prize for the short story. Several works, notably "In Greenwich," have been included in anthologies.

Like Marcel Proust and Henry James, the writers to whom she was most often compared, Calisher composed in the thick, quantum rhythms of the mind. Her sentences were long, her language complex and her story lines often elusive.

Alan Stiles, the former publisher of Men's Fitness and Esquire magazines, has died. He was 54.

Stiles died Jan. 9 after being struck by a commuter train in Massachusetts. Stiles, of Nashua, N.H., parked his car along the Massachusetts Turnpike, then apparently walked into the path of the oncoming train after it left Boston's South Station.

Stiles had a long career in magazines. He helped relaunch Men's Fitness, where he worked as publisher from 2003 to 2004. He also helped launch ESPN The Magazine and served as publisher at Esquire and as a top executive at Vanity Fair and GQ.

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