Final Chapters for March 24, 2018: H. Wayne Huizenga, Charles P. Lazarus, Zell Miller

H. Wayne Huizenga was a college dropout who became a billionaire, building a business empire that included three Fortune 500 companies and three professional sports franchises. He died March 22 at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 80. Huizenga started with a single garbage truck in 1968 and built Waste Management Inc. into the largest waste disposal company in the United States by 1983. He started Blockbuster Video in 1985, and it became the leading movie rental chain nine years later. In 1996, he formed AutoNation, which became the nation’s largest automotive retailer. He owned the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, MLB’s Florida Marlins and NHL’s Florida Panthers simultaneously from 1994 to 1998, becoming the first person to own teams in three major sports leagues. He had sold all three teams by 2009.

Charles P. Lazarus was a World War II veteran who founded Toys R Us six decades ago and transformed it into an iconic piece of Americana. He died March 22, a week after the chain announced it was going out of business. He was 94. Lazarus opened his first store dedicated to selling only toys in 1957, calling it Toys R Us with the “R” spelled backward to give the impression that a child wrote it. By the 1980s and early 90s, Toys R Us dominated the toy-store business and its jingle, “I’m a Toys R Us kid” became an anthem for children across the country. He stepped down as CEO in 1994.

Zell Miller was a former Democratic governor and senator of Georgia. He died March 23 at his home in north Georgia. His family revealed last year that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He was 86. Miller was an enduring presence in Georgia politics for four decades. He served 16 years as lieutenant governor, longer than anyone else in Georgia history, before he was elected governor in 1990 and re-elected in 1994. He was called out of retirement in 2000 to fill the final four years of a U.S. Senate term.

Lawrence K. Grossman was the former president of PBS and NBC News. He died March 23 at his home in Westport, Conn. His granddaughter said he had Parkinson’s disease and oral cancer. He was 86. Grossman was hired in the mid-1950s by CBS to do advertising and promotion for the news division, then became vice president of advertising at NBC from 1962 to 1966. He became president of PBS in 1976 and transformed the network over eight years. He expanded “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” to an hour, and started the “Frontline” documentary series as well as the 13-part series “Vietnam: A Television History.” He became head of NBC News in 1984 and led a resurgence of the news division before budget battles with the network’s corporate bosses forced his departure in 1988.

Frank Avruch was a longtime Boston television personality and entertainer who was the star of the popular children’s TV program “Bozo the Clown.” He died March 20 at his home in Boston. He was 89. Avruch played Bozo the Clown, a clown character particularly popular in the U.S. in the 1960s because of widespread franchising in television, from 1959 to 1970. He became the first nationally-syndicated Bozo the Clown. He was an active philanthropist and a board member of UNICEF’S New England chapter. He toured the world performing as Bozo the Clown for UNICEF.

Peter G. Peterson was a billionaire and business executive who was secretary of commerce under President Richard Nixon. He died March 20 in New York. He was 91. Peterson co-founded the private-equity firm Blackstone Group with Stephen Schwarzman in 1985. He became a billionaire when the firm went public in 2007. He was secretary of commerce from 1972 to 1973 in the Nixon administration and had been chairman and CEO of Bell and Howell and chief executive of the investment bank Lehman Brothers. He became one of the most prominent voices to argue for entitlement reform and reducing the U.S. national debt.

DuShon Monique Brown was an actress who played a secretary in the NBC show “Chicago Fire.” She died March 23 at a hospital in Olympia Fields, Ill. The cause of death wasn’t given. She was 49. Brown was a veteran of Chicago theater. She worked as a crisis counselor at a Chicago high school and led its drama program before winning the role of Connie, the assistant to Chief Boden, played by Eamonn Walker, on “Chicago Fire.” She also had a recurring role as nurse Kattie Welch in “Prison Break” and one-time guest spots on “Empire” and “Shameless.”

Phan Van Khai was an architect of Vietnam’s economic rise and the country’s first prime minister to visit the United States after the end of the Vietnam War. He died March 17 in his home district of Cu Chi on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon. He was 84. Khai oversaw Vietnam’s fastest and most stable economic growth during his nine years in office from 1997 to 2006. He signed a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. in 2000 and oversaw Vietnam’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2006.

Betty Ann Bowser was a broadcast journalist who was a regular presence for decades on the “PBS NewsHour.” She died March 16 at a clinic near her home in Ajijic, Mexico. She had pneumonia, her son said. She was 73. Bowser began her television career in 1966, working at a local station in Virginia. Her breakthrough came after she joined CBS News in 1974, when she was granted one of Richard M. Nixon’s first post-presidential interviews. She began contributing to “NewsHour” in 1988 and served as its health correspondent before retiring in 2013

Sammy Williams was an actor who won a Tony Award in the original Broadway production of “A Chorus Line.” He died March 17 of cancer in Los Angeles, a family spokesperson said. He was 69. Williams won a best featured Tony in 1976 for the role of Paul in “A Chorus Line,” the pioneering musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch about the inner lives of actors auditioning for a big show. He had other earlier smaller parts on Broadway in “Applause” and “The Happy Time.” He was later a choreographer, director and actor in Los Angeles

This story was originally published March 24, 2018 at 6:50 PM with the headline "Final Chapters for March 24, 2018: H. Wayne Huizenga, Charles P. Lazarus, Zell Miller."