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Funeral Arrangements Set For Big River Steel CEO John Correnti

Friends will be received from 5 to 7:30 p.m. on 21 August at Cobb Funeral Home in Blytheville, Ark., USA. Funeral services will be held 2 p.m. 22 August at First United Methodist Church in Blytheville. Entombment will follow in Dogwood Mausoleum.

Correnti was in Chicago on business at the time of his death, attending a Navistar International Corp. board meeting. A cause of death has yet to be determined.

Correnti is being remembered as a visionary who helped to advance the steel industry technologically. He had spent nearly 40 years in the industry, holding a variety of roles. Among them was as chief executive at Nucor Corp., which he led from 1996 to 1999.

Steel analyst Michelle Applebaum said Correnti's values contributed to Nucor's horizontal, meritocratic culture, she told BloombergBusiness.

In 1998, Correnti's leadership was recognized by the Iron & Steel Society, which named him Steelmaker of the Year. The society was a predecessor to the Association for Iron & Steel Technology. A year later, he was named the recipient of the William T. Hogan, S.J. Lecture Award by the Association of Iron and Steel Engineers, another pedecessor organization.

Correnti's latest project was Big River Steel, which is building a US$1.3 billion plant in Arkansas to supply the automotive and energy industries. Correnti's death won't affect construction, and the company will be managed by its operating committee, it said in a statement.