Milestones

DIED. Abram N. Spanel, 83, founder in 1932 and chairman from 1949 to 1975 of the International Latex (now Playtex) Corp., the bra and girdle maker, who was also a notable philanthropist, mostly to medical research, and a gifted inventor who held more than 2,000 patents; of congestive heart failure; in Princeton, N.J. Born in Russia and reared in Paris until at ten he moved to the U.S., Spanel was probably best known to the public for his habit of regularly buying newspaper space, at a cost of millions over four decades, to promote his beliefs, notably world unity, support for Israel and understanding for France.