(Gotta wonder: "natural causes", or a message to Forbes?)

Friday August 3 2:40 PM ET

Forbes Global Editor Dies Climbing Mount Rainier

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawrence ``Laury'' Minard, founding editor of Forbes' international edition, Forbes Global, died while climbing Mount Rainier in Washington state on Thursday, the business magazine said Friday. He was 51.

A spokesman said Minard's death was believed to have been from natural causes and not the result of an accident.

``Laury wonderfully personified the entrepreneurial spirit of Forbes and Forbes Global,'' said Steve Forbes, president and editor-in-chief of Forbes Inc. ``His extraordinary intellect, unflagging energy, insatiable curiosity and impressive knowledge of business here and abroad made him a superb reporter and editor.''

Minard joined Forbes as a reporter/researcher in 1974 and served as managing editor of Forbes from July 1989 until joining the new Forbes Global in September 1997. He had also worked as Forbes' European bureau chief in London, and as Forbes' West Coast and Asia bureau chief in Los Angeles.

Minard, with David Warsh, won the 1977 Gerald Loeb Award for the Forbes article, ``Inflation Is Now Too Serious To Leave To The Economists.'' In 1999 and 2000, he won a London ``Business Journalist of the Year'' award for articles on restructuring a German electric utility conglomerate, and on a Spanish telecommunications entrepreneur.

Born in Seattle on Nov. 19, 1949, Minard earned a B.A. degree from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, and studied political economy at The New School in New York City.

He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Bailey Minard, and their daughters, Sara and Julia, his parents, two brothers and a grandmother.

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