Miller Williams, renowned Arkansas poet and editor, died of complications of Alzheimer’s on January 1 in a hospital in Fayetteville. He was 84. The Arkansas Times published his obituary.

Williams, known famously for reading his poem “Of History and Hope” at Bill Clinton’s second inauguration, was born in Hoxie, Arkansas, and received degrees in biology and zoology at Hendrix University and the University of Arkansas, respectively. According to the Poetry Foundation, Williams was a late-bloomer poet—allegedly, he “exhibited more ability in science than in writing” in his youth—but after teaching science courses at a number of small colleges, and with the good word of novelist and short story writer Flannery O’Connor, he joined the English department at Louisiana State University. He later became professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas, where he co-founded and directed the University of Arkansas Press.

Williams has written, translated, and edited over thirty books, which include poetry collections, nonfiction about the process of poetry writing, and translations of Nicanor Parra, Guiseppe Belli, and Pablo Neruda. His many honors include the Henry Bellman Award, a Fulbright professorship at the National University of Mexico, the Prix de Rome for Literature, and others. Some of his work is archived in the Special Collections at the University of Arkansas library.

William’s daughter, singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, who put her father’s poem, “Compassion,” to music on her latest album, said her father’s Alzheimer’s hindered his ability to write poetry in his waning years. “I started crying when he told me that,” she said to The Washington Post last year. “It’s like a part of him died. That’s why this is so important to me.”

In a written statement, former President Clinton said of Williams, “I will always be grateful for his friendship, which began in 1973 when we were both teaching at the University of Arkansas, and for his beautiful reading at my second inaugural. His words are as meaningful today as they were nearly twenty years ago.”

Some of his poems may be read in a PDF of an old printing of The Arkansas Times.