Died. Joseph Cardinal Wendel, 59, Archbishop of Munich, widely known as the "Bishop of Peace" for his post-World War II travels to rebuild good will for West Germany; of a heart attack after delivering a New Year's Eve sermon; in Munich.

Died. Samuel Moisewitch Levitas, 66, who for 30 years devoted all his energy, skills and love to keeping alive Manhattan's New Leader, won respect if not circulation (24,000) for the liberal, anti-Communist magazine of which he was heart, soul and executive editor; of a heart attack; in Manhattan. Ukraine-born "Sol" Levitas came to the U.S. at 20, returned to Russia when the Revolution began in 1917, served briefly as the Menshevik vice mayor of Vladivostok, but tangled with the Bolsheviks and spent several years in their jails. Making his way back to the U.S. in 1923, he mostly lectured through the Roaring Twenties, in 1930 took over the New Leader, then the official mouthpiece of the U.S. Socialist Party. He turned it into a sounding board for nearly all shades of liberal opinion--staunchly excluding Reds, Trotskyites and totalitarians of any stripe. On his minuscule budget, Editor Levitas could not afford to pay his contributors, telling them: "Don't expect to profit from the truth." With that approach, and with his policy of letting them write whatever they wished, he attracted such as John Dewey, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sandburg, George Orwell, Herbert Morrison and Walter Reuther.

Died. Barry Fitzgerald, 72, the gift of Dublin's Abbey Theater to Hollywood; following a brain operation; in Dublin. From 1917 to 1929 Fitzgerald (real name: William Joseph Shields) led a double life as a bookkeeper for the Dublin Board of Trade by day, by evening an Abbey player in ever-fatter roles. Then famed Playwright Sean O'Casey wrote The Silver Tassie, and Fitzgerald opened it in London as a fulltime actor, quickly became the vogue in brogue. His Hollywood zenith came in 1945, when he won an Oscar for his supporting role as a cantankerous but lovable old priest in Going My Way.

Died. Clarence Decatur Howe, 74, Massachusetts-born engineer who for 22 years was a perennial fixture in Canada's Liberal Cabinets; of a heart attack; in Montreal. On graduating from M.I.T. in 1907, Howe took a teaching offer in Halifax. At 40 he was a millionaire as a builder of grain elevators, docks, bridges and buildings. In 1935 Prime Minister Mackenzie King got "C.D." to run for Parliament and, on Howe's election, installed him in the Cabinet. In his public service years, Howe reorganized railroads, assembled the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., founded Trans-Canada Air Lines, bossed Canada's World War II production effort. Ousted in the Tory sweep of 1957, Howe took it with grace: "I was retired in the honorable way."

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