Died. Dr. Courtney C. Smith, 52, president of Swarthmore College since 1953 and American secretary of the Rhodes Scholarships; of a heart attack; in his office on the eighth day of an Admissions Office sit-in by militant black students. A Harvard man ('38) and Rhodes Scholar himself, Smith was one of the country's youngest college presidents when he assumed office at the small, Quaker-founded liberal arts school. A determinedly academic president, he shunned the role of fund raiser to concentrate on improving the quality of Swarthmore's faculty and curriculum. When 20 black students staged the current sit-in to dramatize their demands for greater black enrollment and a black studies program, the usually imperturbable Smith began to despair. "We have lost something precious here at Swarthmore," he said, "the feeling that force and disruptiveness are just not our way" (see EDUCATION).

Died. Welton Becket, 66, master architect whose clean, functional structures grace five continents; of congestive heart failure; in Los Angeles. Becket's eclectic approach lacked the individuality of a Mies van der Rohe or a Frank Lloyd Wright. "We are trying to solve the client's problems, and it is out of the solution of those problems that the design evolves," said Becket. And from his drawing board came buildings for ten of the U.S.'s top industrial firms, six of its leading banking houses and five of its largest insurance companies, as well as plans for Los Angeles' $34 million Music Center and the 275-acre Century City. All told, he was responsible for $4 billion worth of construction during his 40-year career.

Died. Vernon Duke, 69, Russian-born songwriter who scored many Broadway and London musical hits (Cabin in the Sky, Two Little Girls in Blue) with such well-remembered favorites as April in Paris, Autumn in New York and Taking a Chance on Love; of lung cancer; in Santa Monica, Calif.

Died. Louis Feder, 77, king of the toupee makers, who ministered to the bald and the balding for 50 years; of cancer; in Miami Beach, Fla. The Austrian-born wigmaker established the House of Louis Feder, Inc., in 1914, created his famous "Tashay" (he abhorred the term "toupee") and advertised it as "a hurricane-resisting hairpiece that can be combed and brushed, kept on in high winds and when swimming, and worn for weeks without removal." By the time he retired in 1964, his company had sold wigs to more than 100,000 happy clients. When someone asked who his most satisfied customer was, Feder tugged at his Tashay and cried, "Who else? Me!"

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.