Engaged. Louise Astor Van Alen, Manhattan socialite, descendant of John Jacob Astor; and Prince Alexis Z. Mdivani, brother of Prince Serge (divorced husband of Cinemactress Poia Negri) and Prince David Mdivani (husband of Cinemactress Mae Murray).

Married. Leopoldine ("Polly") Elaine Damrosch, Manhattan Junior Leaguer, pianist, daughter of Conductor Walter Johannes Damrosch and Mrs. (Margaret Elaine) Damrosch, granddaughter of the late great presidential Candidate James Gillespie Elaine; and Sidney Coe Howard, playwright (Swords, They Knew What They Wanted, Ned McCobb's Daughter, The Silver Cord), divorced husband of the late Clare Jennes Eames, U. S. actress who died two months ago in England (TIME, Nov. 17); in Manhattan. Ceremony was performed by the Rev. Frank Heino Damrosch Jr.*

Remarried. Mrs. Marcia Lee Masters Jennings, 21, daughter of Poet Edgar Lee Masters; and Malcolm A. Jennings, 38, her divorced husband (divorce lasted three weeks), Chicago advertising man; in Manhattan.

Elected. President David Franklin Houston of Mutual Life Insurance Co. of New York, U. S. Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of Agriculture under President Wilson; Board Chairman Clarence Mott Woolley of American Radiator Co.; and Director Harry Pelham Robbins of Empire Trust Co.; to the board of trustees of Columbia University. General William Barclay Parsons was re-elected board chairman (his 15th year).

Elected. Board Chairman Albert Henry Wiggin of Chase National Bank; President John R. Macomber of Harris Forbes & Co., Board Chairman Alfred Lee Loomis of American Superpower Corp.; to be new members of the corporation of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Elected. Paul Curtis Martin, senior member of Martin & Corry, Springfield, Ohio, law firm, president and director of Springfield Railway Co.; to be a charter trustee (life tenure) of Princeton University.

Appointed. Dr. Willard Cole Rappleye, 38, to be Dean of Columbia University's School of Medicine; succeeding Dr. William Darrach (TIME, Jan. 5).

Honored. Richard B. Harrison, Negro actor (The Lord, in The Green Pastures) ; with the Spingarn Medal for 1930, awarded for the greatest Negro accomplishment.

Died. George Wellington Schurman, 63, senior member of Hughes, Schurman & Dwight (Charles Evans Hughes), brother of Jacob Gould Schurman (onetime U. S. Ambassador to Germany); of pneumonia; in Manhattan.

Died. Dr. William Coleman Bitting, 73, pastor of Second Baptist Church in St. Louis from 1905 to 1924; in St. Louis, Mo. Known as a liberal, his most famed statement was: "I am bound by no creed. Personally, I am a Metho-formed, Presby-gational, Bapto-palian. I am not trying to get men into Heaven; I am trying to get Heaven into men. Nor am I trying to keep men out of Hell, but keep Hell out of men."

Died. William A. Marburg, 81, Baltimore banker, of intercostal neuralgia; in Baltimore.

Died. Nathan Straus, 82, great philanthropist and Jewish leader; of heart disease and high blood pressure; in Manhattan. He was born in Rhenish Bavaria in 1848, son of Lazarus Straus, who came to the U. S. in 1854, settled in Talbotton, Ga. Eldest brother was Isidor (later famed in the building up of Straus stores, victim with his wife of the Titanic disaster in 1912); youngest was Oscar Solomon (first Jew to hold a cabinet post, Secretary of Commerce & Labor, 1906-09, twice Minister, once Ambassador to Turkey; died in 1926). Ruined by the Civil War, the family came to Manhattan, established L. Straus & Sons, importers of glass and crockery. Later they founded their fortune by buying into R. H. Macy & Co. and Abraham & Straus, department stores. Nathan Straus married Lina Gutherz in 1875. Her death last year marked the start of his declining health.

Beginning in his own stores, Nathan Straus gave spontaneously, individually. His great benefaction was the establishment of world-wide stations which provided pure pasteurized milk at a low cost. Other great philanthropies: food, coal, lodging to Manhattan's destitute during the panic of 1893-94; the first children's tuberculosis preventortum (1909); first Pasteur Institute, first health bureau in Jerusalem; Committee for the Defense of Jews in Poland (of which he was chairman); widespread relief during the War.

Died. Charles Gerard Conn, 86, founder of Conn Band Instrument Co., Civil War Veteran, onetime (1893-95) U. S. Representative from Indiana, one-time owner of the Washington Times; in Los Angeles, Calif.

*Famed are Manhattan's four Damrosch girls:

1) Alice, 1910 debutante; divorced wife of Architect Pleasants Pennington who gardens; onetime president of the New York Junior League; famed amateur ski-jumper (last year's winner of the Swiss Gold Ski Prize for Women).

2) Gretchen ("Gay"), 1914 debutante; wife of Manhattan Lawyer Thomas Knight Finletter of Coudert Bros.; playwright. (The Life Line recently opened and closed on Broadway.)

3) Leopoldine ("Polly"), 1916 debutante; named for her grandfather, Jewish Conductor Leopold Damrosch, founder of the New York Symphony; pianist, dog fancier.

4) Anita, 1921 debutante; wife of Robert Littell, able, brilliant critic of the New York World.

Their father, Walter Johannes, was for many years conductor of the New York Symphony, is now radio conductor and lecturer. His brother is Frank Heino Damrosch, director of Manhattan's Institute of Musical Art.

Their first cousins:

1) Frank, Rector of St. Andrews, Newark. N. J.; celebrant of last week's ceremony.

2) Helen, artist, wife of Fish Expert & Socialite John Tee-Van; illustrator, artist, William Beebe aid.

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