DIED. Ronnie Peterson, 34, Swedish racing-car ace; of injuries suffered in a fiery ten-car crash during the first lap of the Italian Formula One Grand Prix at Monza; in Milan. Starting as a "gocart" driver at the age of eight, the shy, cool-nerved Peterson eventually raced in more than 100 Grand Prix events, and this year ranked second behind Mario Andretti in the world championship driver standings. Asked if he ever became scared, Peterson, the veteran of some 30 accidents, replied, "No, not really. If I did I think I would give it up." The fatal wreck stirred fellow drivers to demand either the closing or complete remodeling of the 56-year-old Monza course, considered by many to be too narrow and fast a track.

DIED. George Bliss, 60, award-winning investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune; by his own hand, after apparently shooting and killing his wife; in Oak Lawn, Ill. A series on a scandal-infested municipal sanitary district won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1962; subsequently, he headed inquiries into election fraud and federal housing programs that garnered his paper two more Pulitzers. According to Tribune Editor Clayton Kirkpatrick, Bliss was a "perfectionist who agonized over details and in effect became a victim of his own intense devotion to journalism."

DIED. Valerian Gracias, 77, one of India's three Roman Catholic Cardinals and the Archbishop of Bombay; of cancer; in Bombay. In 1953 Gracias became the first Indian-born Cardinal, and in 1964 he was host to Paul VI on the first papal visit to the Far East. Ill since last May, Gracias did not attend the election of Pope John Paul I in Vatican City.

DIED. Willy Messerschmitt, 80, German industrialist and aircraft designer whose single-engine fighter plane dominated Luftwaffe squadrons during World War II; after surgery; in Munich. Awarded a glider pilot's license at the age of 15, Messerschmitt first gained fame building light sports planes. The young, soft-spoken engineer specialized in increasing aircraft speed and soon received military assignments. During the war, German factories filled European and African skies with 40,000 of his ME-109 fighters and ME-110 twin-engine bombers, aircraft so effective that Allied pilots who displayed bad nerves were said to have "the Messerschmitt twitch." In 1941 he developed the world's first combat jet, but Hitler stalled its production until the Third Reich's final days. Held in custody for two years after the war, and like other German aircraft makers forced to observe a ten-year Allied ban on production, Messerschmitt turned to building sewing machines, prefab houses and three-wheel midget autos. In the early 1950s he again began to design planes, first in Spain for Franco and later in Germany.

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