SEEKING DIVORCE. Willy Brandt, 65, former Chancellor of West Germany (1969-74) and 1971 Nobel Peace Prize recipient; and Rut Hansen Brandt, 58; after 31 years of marriage, three sons; in Bonn.

DIED. John H. Knowles, 52, president of the Rockefeller Foundation and outspoken critic of the American medical profession and U.S. health care policies; of cancer of the pancreas; in Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital, where he once served as general director for ten years. Knowles interned and later specialized in respiratory diseases at Mass. General, and in 1962, at age 35, he was named head of the 1,084-bed teaching hospital, the youngest in its 158-year history. An innovative administrator, he earned admirers and enemies throughout his tenure by decrying high doctors' fees and advocating preventive medicine and comprehensive health insurance for all Americans. Such iconoclasm cost Knowles the nation's top medical post in 1969, when his expected nomination as an assistant secretary of HEW was scuttled by conservative Republicans and the A.M.A. Undeterred, he went on to be come president of the $800 million Rockefeller Foundation in 1972, focusing domestically on problems of unemployment and population stabilization and, concerned with the interdependence of the developing and developed nations, sending more than half of the foundation's grant budget abroad.

DIED. Jamil M. Baroody, 73, longtime Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the U.N. and dean of that body's delegates; of cancer; in Manhattan. A Lebanese Christian by birth, Baroody joined the Saudi delegation to the U.N. at its first meeting in San Francisco in 1945. A loquacious speaker who enjoyed the complete confidence of King Faisal, he could turn bombastic, even pushy (literally), when defending his positions on Zionism and other matters, moving one of his colleagues, Ambassador George Bush, to describe the crusty diplomat as "an unguided missile."

DIED. Jean Villot, 73, French Roman Catholic Cardinal and for the past ten years the Vatican's secretary of state, traditionally the second most powerful prelate in the church; of bronchial pneumonia; in

Vatican City. A discreet, progressive administrator, Villot often appeared overshadowed by other papal aides, yet he was appointed Camerlengo (Chamberlain) by Paul VI, charged with organizing the Pontiffs funeral and the election of his successor. Mentioned as a papabile himself, Villot was reappointed secretary of state by both John Paul I and John Paul II.

DIED. Guiomar Novaes, eightyish, eminent Brazilian pianist; of a heart attack; in Sao Paulo. Born the 17th of 19 children, Novaes began playing the piano at age four, and ten years later left her native country to study in Paris on a Brazilian government grant. Upon her American debut in 1915, she was hailed as "the Paderewska of the Pampas," and for the next five decades sustained that accolade through her recordings and international concerts. An intuitive musician and a supreme keyboard colorist, the tiny (5 ft.) virtuoso was renowned for her warm, effortless performances of the 19th century Romantic composers, and once won the praise of Debussy,, who remarked on her "rare power of complete inner concentration."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.