Divorced. Erich Leinsdorf, 56, Austrian-born music director of the Boston Symphony since 1962; and Anne Leinsdorf, his American wife; by mutual consent; after 28 years of marriage, five children; in Juarez, Mexico.

Died. Winfield Townley Scott, 58, critic, editor and poet; in Santa Fe, N. Mex. Although Scott wrote about other states, he wrote best of familiar, roughhewn private places like Haverhill, Mass., where he was born. In his lyrical, uncluttered style, he celebrated them in poems like "Tidal River":

Grass voluptuous in the river water

Exhales a pre-dawn rain. But no rain now. A fuss of finches

Flusters the low light rising through alder tangle. A tin can

Winks in the mud, is angled to shoot the sun.

Died. Jack Adams, 72, longtime ice-hockey great, both as a player and as a general manager; of a heart attack in Detroit. Rotund as a hand grenade and just as explosive, Adams earned his reputation as a slick-skating center for the Toronto Arenas (forerunners of the Maple Leafs); he demonstrated his managerial skills by collecting young talent for the Detroit Red Wings (he got Gordie Howe at 17) and leading his team to twelve N.H.L. titles (including a record seven in a row from 1949 to 1955) and seven Stanley Cup victories.

Died. Edwin C. Parsons, 75, last surviving ace of World War I's collection of U.S. pilots flying for France, the famed Lafayette Escadrille; in Sarasota, Fla. "These men were of another world.

They engaged in the most brilliant and spectacular form of combat in the history of mankind," Parsons wrote in 1917 of the pilots with whom he shared honors and excitement (he bagged eight enemy planes, was credited with seven "probables").

Died. Sir Harold Nicolson, 81, Britain's brilliant historian (The Congress of Vienna) and diarist, who in Volumes I (1930-39) and II (1939-45) of Diaries and Letters gave a penetrating analysis of the Establishment; in Kent, England. Husband of the late novelist Vita Sackville-West and son of a Brit ish lord, Nicolson moved with ease through the rooms at the top, recording with candor and wit the intrigues and personalities of Europe's destiny shapers. He was devoted to Churchill, disdainful of De Gaulle, yet found nearly everyone fascinating. "Only one person in a thousand is a bore," he once told his son, "and he is interesting because he is one person in a thousand."

Died. Patrick P. Thienes, 83, onetime polio victim who became a champion hiker; of emphysema; in San Diego. Stricken with polio at six, Thienes began to hike at 14 to strengthen his legs and promote charities that cared for crippled children. In 1905 he covered 9,000 miles in the U.S. and Canada; in 1912 he set a record of 77 days for a coast-to-coast walk--and 50 years later broke it by walking from Los Angeles to New York in 54 days.

Died. Roy E. Tomlinson, 90, former president (1917-29, 1932-45) and chairman (1929-55) of the National Biscuit Co., who raised a small biscuit-maker to a modern corporate giant (1967 sales: $764 million) that makes everything from crackers to candies, cookies to ice cream cones, and sells them throughout the world; in Glen Ridge, N.J.

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