Died. Sir Francis Chichester, 70, adventurous yachtsman whose 1966-67 solo voyage round the world in the ketch Gipsy Moth IV won him international fame; of anemia caused by a malignant spinal tumor; in Plymouth, England. Though he became the archetype of the master seaman, Chichester set the world's record for the longest solo flight in a seaplane in 1931. He bought his first yacht in 1953 and in 1960 won the first transatlantic solo yacht race. After his historic trip round the world, the first made with just one landfall, Chichester was given a hero's welcome in his native Plymouth and knighted with the sword of Sir Francis Drake. Despite age and ill health, he attempted to make his fifth solo Atlantic crossing two months ago, but had to turn back.

Died. George B. Henderson, 78, co-founder in 1939 of the Sheraton hotel chain; in Boston. After World War I, Henderson teamed up with his brother Ernest in a family brokerage firm in Boston. With Ernest's former Harvard roommate, Robert Moore, the brothers began acquiring New England real estate during the early '30s, and in 1937 they bought their first hotel. Two years later they acquired the Boston Sheraton, named after the 18th century English furniture designer; because the hotel's electric rooftop sign was so expensive to remove they adopted the Sheraton name that now identifies more than 200 hotels round the world.

Died. Charles Suydam Cutting, 83, naturalist and explorer, who in 1935 led an expedition to Tibet's remote, Shangri-La city of Lhasa; of a cerebral hemorrhage; on Chappaquiddick Island, Mass. In 1925, Cutting set out for Central Asia on the first of many expeditions in search of rare animal species. A decade later he made the most famous of all his journeys when, after five years of plying the Dalai Lama with gifts, he was invited to visit and crossed the Himalayas to the nearly inaccessible 7th century city of Lhasa.

Died. Admiral Harold R. ("Betty") Stark, 91, ranking U.S. naval officer at the time of Pearl Harbor; of a heart attack; in Washington, D.C. Stark was appointed Chief of Naval Operations in 1939 by President Roosevelt, but after Japan's 1941 surprise attack, he was relieved of his post and transferred to command of U.S. naval forces in Europe. Though highly decorated during World War II, the Pearl Harbor disaster haunted Stark's career. Before his retirement in 1946, he was criticized by a Naval court of inquiry for failing to exercise "superior judgment" during the critical two weeks preceding the attack. The severity of that criticism was tempered in later reviews of the case.

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