ENGAGED. Arthur B. Laffer, 42, University of Southern California economist and author of the controversial supply-side tax curve named after him; and Traci Lynn Hickman, 23, a U.S.C. senior majoring in political science; in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. The couple met when she had a job in the office of the business-school dean.

DIED. Salvador Sanchez, 23, World Boxing Council featherweight champion and one of the sport's best fighters; of injuries after his Porsche 928 collided with two trucks; just north of Queretaro, Mexico. A school dropout at 16, Sanchez once explained, "I found out that I liked hitting people, and I didn't like school, so I started boxing." A peppery tactician, he wore opponents down for late-round knockouts. His record: 43-1-1. "I'd like to step down undefeated," he said last month. "I'm only 23 and I have all the time in the world."

DIED. Thruston Morton, 74, two-term U.S. Senator (1957-69) and Republican National Chairman during the 1960 campaign; of undisclosed causes; in Louisville, Ky. A seventh-generation Kentuckian, the Yale-educated millionaire was a leader of the G.O.P.'s liberal wing and an advocate of bold U.S. leadership in world affairs.

DIED. Gordon W. Rule, 75, civilian chief of procurement for the Navy who was a relentless, irreverent Government cost cutter; of cancer; in Arlington, Va. Often battling with military, congressional and corporate brass, he saved uncounted taxpayer dollars from 1963 to 1976, most notably when he carved $100 million from Pratt & Whitney's bill for F-111 jet engines.

DIED. Henry Fonda, 77, quintessential American stage and screen actor; of heart disease; in Los Angeles (see CINEMA).

DIED. Samuel M. Kootz, 83, foresighted art dealer and paladin of abstract expressionism in America; in New York City. Kootz helped to define the emerging school by showing such artists as Robert Motherwell, Hans Hofmann, Carl Holty, Fritz Glarner and Adolph Gottlieb. As a critic and author, Kootz griped about American artists who poured "their ideas into the same corny molds." By contrast, he wrote of the abstract expressionists' works: "Dramatically personal, each painting contains part of the artist's self, this revelation of himself in paint being a conscious revolt from our Puritan heritage."

DIED. Carl Braestrup, 85, physicist who sounded early alarms about radiation's dangers and co-invented the Theratron, a cobalt-therapy machine patented in 1953 and still used to treat cancer; of complications from a stroke; in Middletown, Conn.

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