Liz Claiborne, fashion designer for working women climbing corporate ladders, died Tuesday at the New York Presbyterian Hospital after battling cancer for many years. She was 78.

Said Bill McComb, CEO of Claiborne's company since November: "In losing Liz Claiborne, we have not only lost the founder of our company, but an inspirational woman who revolutionized the fashion industry 30 years ago. Her commitment to style and design is ever present in our thinking and the way we work. We will remember Liz for her vision, her entrepreneurial spirit and her enduring compassion and generosity."

Claiborne, with husband Art Ostenberg and partners Leonard Boxer and Jerome Chazen, launched her label in 1976 after working for years as an unknown dress designer. Her brand featured ensemble sportswear with price tags below that of other designers and revolutionized the department store industry. Once compartmentalized, with pants in one department and skirts in another, Claiborne's coordinated clothing inspired the merging of once-separate departments.

Billionaire Dutch businessman, philanthropist, outspoken environmentalist and wildlife conservationist Paul Fentener van Vlissingen, who owned the 81,000-acre Letterewe Estate in Scotland, as well as nature reserves in England and wetland reserves in the Netherlands, and who founded the Africa Parks Foundation (APF) developing parks in Malawi, Zambia and Ethiopia, has lost his life to pancreatic cancer.

Paul van Vlissingen and the van Vlissingen family are well-known in the Netherlands for the many generations of interest and efforts on behalf of wildlife. He was said to be involved in environmental causes on every continent. To promote responsible management of nature, he appeared in television programs with Prince Charles. In addition, he was a published author and spoke publicly on environmental causes.

A few excerpts from his obituary read:

"He supported human population control, but believed it could be attained only through choice and empowering women through education and equality."

Noting how as a boy Van Vlissingen spent much of his time outdoors, reading voraciously and writing poetry, his parents joked: "We have three children and a gypsy."

"He was convinced that continual change is the oxygen a company needs for its survival. He was also convinced that both fun and challenges in the working environment were important for all, and he evolved a managerial style which emphasized respect for, and investment in, people."

When Van Vlissingen was diagnosed with cancer, he founded the Van Vlissingen Cancer Fund in the Netherlands. Paul Fentener van Vlissingen was 65. Fascinating man.