DIED. Charles Frankel, 61, Columbia professor of philosophy, founder of the new National Humanities Center in North Carolina and Assistant Secretary of State under Lyndon Johnson (1965-67) who resigned his post in protest against the Viet Nam War; of gunshot wounds apparently inflicted by robbers who also shot and killed his wife; in Bedford Hills, N. Y.

DIED. Barbara Mutton, 66, oft-wed Woolworth heiress whose personal misfortunes earned her the nickname "poor little rich girl"; of a heart attack; in Los Angeles. Her seven husbands included Laotian, Lithuanian and Russian princes, a Prussian count and Actor Cary Grant. A granddaughter of the founder of the 5 and 10-c- store chain. Hutton inherited some $25 million at age twelve, but was long plagued by illnesses that ranged from kidney disease to cataracts, and spent her last years a recluse, often bedridden and weighing only 80 Ibs.

DIED. Talcott Parsons, 76, pre-eminent social theorist who through four decades of teaching at Harvard and dozens of scholarly works molded generations of sociologists; of a stroke; in Munich. Influenced by the German thinker Max Weber, Parsons attempted to construct logical categories into which he could fit every kind of social relationship. His theories, which played down conflict and tolerated inequality, were considered conservative and have been criticized as irrelevant. But Parsons took pride in preferring "more nearly pure research" to the trend toward relevance.

DIED. Bernard Leach, 92, artist-potter who brought the method of Japanese ceramics to the West; in St. Ives, England.

DIED. Cyrus S. Eaton, 95, self-made multimillionaire industrialist who, while championing U.S. capitalism, advocated closer ties with Communist nations in the interest of world peace; in Northfield, Ohio. Born in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Eaton was dissuaded from becoming a Baptist minister by Oil Magnate John D. Rockefeller Sr., who recognized his knack for business. Eaton amassed a fortune in power companies, steel and rubber concerns. After Hiroshima his chief interest became saving "capitalism and all mankind from nuclear annihilation." He conducted a series of "Pugwash Conferences" between Western and Communist intellectuals, promoted trade with Eastern bloc countries, and met frequently with Soviet leaders--efforts that won him the Lenin Peace Prize in 1960. Said he: "We must either learn to live with the Communists or resign ourselves to perish with them."

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