Died. Arthur Holly Compton, 69, brilliant pioneer of modern physics and, as wartime director of the University of Chicago's innocuously titled Metallurgical Laboratory, a key figure in the development of the atomic bomb, Chancellor of St. Louis' Washington University (1945-53); of a stroke; in Berkeley, Calif. An unpretentious scion of one of America's distinguished intellectual families,* Ohio-born Arthur Compton made his scientific debut at ten with a treatise on elephants' toes, won the Nobel Prize (together with Britain's Charles T.R. Wilson) at 35 with the discovery that X rays are composed of particles, but despite his steeping in the scientific method clung to a deep religious faith, occasionally preaching from Presbyterian pulpits.

Died. George Storr May, 71, flamboyant black sheep of the management consulting business, an ex-Bible salesman who despite the handicap of a prison record (eleven months for forgery) hard-sold his way to leadership of the U.S.'s biggest "business engineering company," whose services he promoted by staging some of golfing's gaudiest and most lucrative tournaments at his Tarn O'Shanter Country Club outside Chicago; of a heart attack; at Tarn O'Shanter.

Died. Alexander Kahn, 80, Russian-born general manager of New York's Jewish Daily Forward, the U.S.'s largest (circ. 70,000) foreign language (Yiddish) newspaper, a tireless fighter for the downtrodden, whose fund-raising efforts among New York's wealthy Jewish families won him the title of "the East Side's ambassador to the Uptown Jews"; of cancer; in Manhattan.

Died. May Bonfils Stanton, eightyish, elder daughter of the Denver Post's late Publisher Frederick G. Bonfils, who fell out with her father over her first marriage, lived much of her life in semi-seclusion in a 20-room marble copy of Marie Antoinette's Petit Trianon, and pursued a 30-year feud with her younger sister--and current Post boss--Helen Bonfils Davis with such intensity that the Post was not even informed of May's death, got scooped on the obituary by the rival Rocky Mountain News; after a long illness; in Denver.

Died. Sir Philip Gibbs, 84, who in 1914 became one of Fleet Street's first accredited war correspondents, was knighted for his dashing, idealistic dispatches from the trenches, spent the postwar years writing optimistic books on world peace and in 1939 returned to war corresponding with the bleak sigh: "Has it been 21 years or seven days' leave?"; of pneumonia; in London.

* Between them, Arthur Compton and his brothers Wilson and the late Karl boasted 67 degrees, at various times held twelve university chairs and presided over three colleges.

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