Divorced. Dr. Alexander Comfort, 53, British biologist, gerontologist and author (The Power House, Come Out to Play), and lately one of science's most approving analysts of group sex (TIME, Jan. 8); and Ruth Comfort; after 29 years of marriage, one son; in London.

Died. Istvan Kertesz, 43, music director of the Cologne Opera and one of the half-dozen top jet-traveling conductors; by drowning when swept out to sea while swimming in the Mediterranean near Tel Aviv, where he was guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Born and trained in Hungary, Kertesz conducted his first concert at age 19, soon became conductor of Hungary's Gyoer Philharmonic and the Budapest State Opera. Armed with vast operatic and symphonic repertories, the quiet, authoritative maestro moved to Germany in 1957, made his American debut in Detroit in 1961, and in the past decade appeared annually in some 120 performances in the U.S. and abroad.

Died. Lawrance Thompson, 67, Princeton University scholar, whose official biography of his longtime friend (Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph, 1915-1938) revealed a dark side of the supposedly kindly, curmudgeonly old poet, that of a petty, cantankerous schemer--and earned Thompson a 1970 Pulitzer Prize; after a long illness; in Princeton, N.J.

Died. J. Preston Levis, 71, gruff, aggressive leader of Owens-Illinois during the glass company's rapid expansion after World War II; in Toledo. Levis was a plant manager in his family-owned Illinois Glass Co. when the firm merged with the Owens Bottle Co. in 1929 and Levis' cousin became the first Owens-Illinois president. By 1941, Levis himself was elected top bottlemaker. Under his leadership as president (1941-50) and later as chairman of the board (1950-68), the company grew to become an international producer of plastics, paper and glass, increasing its annual sales from $88 million in 1940 to $961 million in 1967.

Died. Willie ("the Lion") Smith, 75, last of the original "stride style" jazz pianists who flourished in Harlem during the '20s and '30s; of congestive heart failure in Manhattan. Smith won his nickname for his World War I bravery; he earned his fame with a piano technique dominated by the left hand sliding across the lower half of the keyboard, thumping out chords. With his ever-present red vest, derby hat and cigar, Smith performed for more than half a century, toured frequently in the U.S. and Europe, and influenced jazz musicians from Duke Ellington to Thelonious Monk.

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