Died. Ahmad Ismail Ali, 57, Egyptian Minister of War and military commander who planned the 1973 Arab assaults at Suez and on the Golan Heights; of cancer; in London. A World War II veteran who saw action with the British Eighth Army against Rommel's Afrika Korps, Ismail fought in the 1948, 1956 and 1967 wars against Israel. As Arab commander in chief, he put in 20-hour days during 1973, planning the autumn strike. When the Syrian and Egyptian assaults came on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, Ismail's use of water cannon to erode the sand bluffs of the Suez Canal enabled Egyptian troops to cross at unexpected points and shatter the Israeli Bar-Lev Line within six hours. At his death, Egypt's President Anwar Sadat praised Ismail as "a hero whose name will forever be linked with the glories of Egyptian military history."

Died. Amy Vanderbilt, 66, doyenne of American etiquette; of injuries suffered in a fall from the window of her Manhattan brownstone. Great-granddaughter of a cousin of the rail baron Cornelius, she was born on Staten Island and began her career writing society columns in a local paper, went on to become a syndicated columnist. Her Complete Book of Etiquette (1952) sold almost 3 million copies, with such advice as where the father of the bride should sit if he and the mother of the bride are divorced. (Beside his new wife in the third pew behind the mother of the bride.) Married four times, Vanderbilt continually revised her book to reflect society's increasing informality, but she believed strongly that "only a great fool or a great genius is likely to flout all social grace with impunity."

Died. Sterling North, 68, novelist and critic; after a series of strokes; in Whippany, N.J. North worked from 1932 to 1956 as literary editor of the Chicago Daily News, the New York Post and the New York World-Telegram & Sun, turning out a book a year as well.

Died. William H. Draper Jr., 80, banker, diplomat and population-control advocate; of a heart attack; in Naples, Fla. A vice president of the investment banking firm of Dillon, Read & Co., Draper was assigned to the War Department's World War II general staff, later headed economic missions to Germany and Japan. Convinced that population growth in developing countries was a critical problem, he devoted the last years of his life to stemming that growth.

Died. Jack Benny, 80, comedic virtuoso of vaudeville, radio and TV; of cancer; in Beverly Hills, Calif. (see SHOW BUSINESS).

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