PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) -- William Demas, the Caribbean
                  Community's first secretary-general, who helped lay the groundwork for
                  stable economies after centuries of British rule, has died. He was 69.

                  The Caribbean Community secretariat said Demas died Saturday of renal
                  failure at St. Clair Medical Center in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, where he was
                  being treated for diabetes.

                  His death came hours after the death of Kurleigh King, who led the trade
                  group from 1978 to 1983, in Iowa, on Friday.

                  Both men helped the collection of English-speaking states weather
                  recessions.

                  Demas, a Trinidadian economist, headed the Caribbean Free Trade Area
                  beginning in 1970 and was the first leader of the group's successor, the
                  15-member Caribbean Community, which was formed in 1973. He left the
                  position in 1974.

                  Demas helped form the Caribbean Development Bank and was a former
                  chief of Trinidad and Tobago's central bank. He presided over the July 1973
                  signing in Trinidad of the Treaty of Chaguaramas that formed the Caribbean
                  Community.

                  Copyright 1998 The Associated Press.