Bill Shook

Friday, May 25, 2007

Wilson M. "Bill" Shook, 55, a native Washingtonian who became the Chicago-based northern division president of Clark Construction Group, was found dead May 19 at a property he owned and was developing in St. Michaels, Md.

A spokeswoman for the Maryland medical examiner's office said Mr. Shook died of accidental drowning. According to his wife, Mr. Shook was driving at night and his car fell into a deep agricultural ditch that was full of water.

In Chicago, he participated in corporate-level strategic planning. He also had overall leadership responsibly for Clark's major projects in the Midwest and Northeast, including building expansion of McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, General Motors Vehicle Engineering Center in Warren, Mich., and the Boston Convention Center.

Wilson Murray Shook was a 1970 graduate of Whitman High School in Bethesda. He was a 1975 geology graduate of Indiana University and a 1981 graduate of Catholic University law school.

He began working in 1975 at George Hyman Construction Co. in Bethesda, which in the mid-1990s merged with another company to form Clark Construction Group LLC, also headquartered in Bethesda.

While he initially was a laborer at Hyman, Mr. Shook soon moved to the business side, and by the mid-1980s was vice president in charge of purchasing.

In 1993, he was named manager of Hyman's Chicago regional office. He lived in Winnetka, Ill.

He did volunteer work in Scouting groups and fundraising for the When You Wish Upon a Star Foundation charitable organization.

Survivors include his wife of 29 years, Nancy Schrotz Shook of Winnetka; four children, Wilson M. Shook of Seattle and Benjamin Shook, Sara Shook and Joseph Shook, all of Winnetka; a brother, Langley Shook of Washington; and a sister, Leslie Dalton of Tulsa, Okla.