William Wright, former president and CEO of the Hearst Book Group, died February 26 at the age of 62. Wright took the position at Hearst in 1995 from his post as Random House's chief operating officer. A strong advocate of Literacy Volunteers and Child Advocates of Indiana, Wright published books by authors like Pope John Paul II, George H.W. Bush, Sidney Sheldon, and Whoopi Goldberg. Prior to joining Random House in 1992, Wright was senior v-p of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group. Before that he was senior v-p of CBS Educational and Professional Publishing. He joined CBS in 1980 as director of distribution.