WILLIAM SLATER (1939-2007) The Skagit Valley painter began his career in New York as studio assistant to pioneering contemporary artist Jasper Johns and a friend of Mark Rothko and Tony Smith. Mr. Slater died at the house he built on Pull and Be Damned Point, outside La Conner, Skagit County. He was 67 and had battled pancreatic cancer for more than a year.
Mr. Slater moved to La Conner in the early 1970s to be near his good friend, author Tom Robbins (“Another Roadside Attraction,” “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”). The two had met in New York in 1964, while Mr. Slater was in graduate school at Hunter College at the City University of New York.
