Bill Oliver, 71, former president of BellSouth Louisiana and later AT&T Louisiana, died Monday in Lebanon, Tennessee. He reportedly fell from a boat he was towing as he stopped in a school parking lot to adjust it. Starting as an engineer, highlights of his 36-year phone career include coordinating BellSouth's activities at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans. He's survived by his wife, a son, two daughters, a brother, a sister and four grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are pending.

AT&T Vice President-Associate General Counsel Jack Zinman, 50, died May 5, the company announced Friday. He also previously worked at NTIA, and most recently led the telco's same FCC regulatory group that he joined as a young lawyer. Executive Vice President-Regulatory & State External Affairs Joan Marsh recalled her unsuccessful “Don’t take our Jack” campaign to try to get Zinman not to move to the company's Atlanta office, where he went to work on additional issues and where he lived at the time of his death. Zinman is survived by his wife and three kids, his mother and stepfather, and four siblings. There is a Zinman Children Educational Fund in his memory.

Former journalist, congressional aide and telecom public relations executive Bill Brobst, 72, of Odenton, Maryland, died Sunday after battling Parkinson’s for seven years. He reported for The New York Times and worked in PR for then-Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind., who himself recently died, and for now-deceased Rep. Allen Ertel, D-Pa. Later, Brobst joined Comsat, GTE and Scientific Atlanta in PR. In retirement, Brobst was a copy editor for Warren Communications News. He's survived by his wife, son, daughter and two brothers. A memorial service is planned in Odenton April 13.

Retired Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., 92, died Thursday from complications from prostate cancer. Known among colleagues as “the dean,” Dingell chaired the House Commerce Committee for a total of 18 years, and was ranking member for 12. He was among the lawmakers responsible for writing the 1996 Telecom Act. “Any ... telecommunications legislation that became law during his tenure at the helm of this Committee had his fingerprints on it,” said Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J. America’s Public Television Televisions CEO Patrick Butler recalled a photo of the Earth that hung in Dingell’s office with “a caption, saying ‘Jurisdiction of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.’ This expansive view of the committee’s writ tested the boundaries of congressional power, but the chairman delighted in his role as a central figure in policy matters,” Butler said. When Dingell announced he would retire in 2015, former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell called him “a bipartisan watchdog regarding FCC process” (see 1402250056). “If you testified in front of @JohnDingell you were in for a series of yes or no questions. He wasn’t wasting time, he was getting things done,” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted Friday. Survivors include wife Debbie, who succeeded him in the House, three children, a brother, sister and three grandchildren. Dingell will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Visitation will be Monday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m., at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center at 15801 Michigan Ave., Dearborn; a funeral mass will be Tuesday, 11 a.m., at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 22430 Michigan Ave., Dearborn. A funeral service will be held in Washington with further details to come.

Patricia Wald, 90 and the first woman to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, died Saturday in Washington, D.C., of pancreatic cancer. Appointed to the D.C. Circuit in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, Wald became its chief judge in 1986, serving until 1991. She was among the slate of initial members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Survivors include five children, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Ed Reynolds, 71, an original FirstNet board member, died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer (see link for memorial and other plans). A longtime telco executive, he retired as president-network operations for Cingular Wireless (now AT&T Wireless) in January 2007 and from the FirstNet board last year. He was a former member of the executive committees of the North American GSM Alliance and CTIA and the PCIA board and had been on the FCC Network Reliability and Interoperability Council. He's survived by his wife Peggy, two daughters and six grandchildren.

Walt Wurfel, 81, NAB senior vice president-communications 1986-1997, died Thursday at a Falls Church, Virginia, assisted living facility. Wurfel’s long broadcast career included a stint as deputy press secretary in the Carter administration and as Gannett vice president-communications. Survivors include his wife Sara Fitzgerald, two sons and three grandchildren. Memorial service is at 1 p.m. Dec. 22 at Rock Spring Congregational United Church of Christ, 5010 Little Falls Rd., Arlington. Condolences may be emailed to his wife, sarafitz@aol.com.

James Billington, who retired as librarian of Congress in 2015, died Tuesday. He was 89. President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Library of Congress in 1987. In bringing the LOC online, Billington initiated the National Digital Library Program. Other electronic services created under his watch included Congress.gov, eCo online copyright registration and National Jukebox, providing free streaming access to out-of-print music and spoken-word recordings. A few months before Billington announced his retirement, a GAO report criticized him and other LOC leaders for not modernizing critical LOC IT systems (see 1503310046). Before joining the LOC, Billington was a Russia scholar and taught at Princeton and Harvard before heading the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. Survivors include his wife, Marjorie, four children and 12 grandchildren.

Joe Clayton, 69, for many years the industry face and voice of the RCA brand and later CEO at Frontier Communications, Sirius Satellite Radio and Dish Network, died Saturday from complications of pancreatic cancer. CTA, which Clayton chaired during the mid-1990s, hailed him Sunday as a direct broadcast satellite “pioneer” for his role in launching RCA Digital Satellite Service receivers with DirecTV in 1994. Survivors include his wife, five children and four grandchildren. A calling is scheduled for 3-8 p.m. Thursday at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Clayton’s alma mater. A viewing is planned for 9 a.m. Friday at Barlowe Funeral Home in Bardstown, Kentucky, and an 11 a.m. funeral mass will be at the Basilica of Saint Joseph Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown.

Paul Allen, 65, co-founder of Microsoft, died Monday from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He owned Vulcan Spectrum, which was active in the 2008 wireless spectrum auction. Allen also was an early investor in AOL and invested in Charter Communications, RCN and DreamWorks SKG. He's survived by his sister, Jody.