MILESTONES

DIED. PAOLO GUCCI, 64, hell-bent-for-leather grandson of the fashion empire founder, whose combative role in the company helped ignite a family feud that ended with the exodus of all the Guccis from the House of Gucci; of liver illness; in London. DIED. ROBERT FINCH, 70, manager for Richard Nixon's fumbled 1960 White House campaign, H.E.W. Secretary after Nixon finally took the Oval Office in 1968; of a heart attack; in Pasadena, California.

DIED. JOHN A. SCALI, 77, former ABC News correspondent; in Washington. In 1962, as the world was watching the rapidly escalating Cuban missile crisis, a Soviet intelligence official asked Scali to pass on to the White House a proposal to defuse the edge-of-Armageddon confrontation. President Kennedy then asked the newsman to keep a lid on the secrets he was privy to as unofficial go-between. Nobly, Scali did--passing up the scoop of a lifetime.

DIED. KUKRIT PRAMOJ, 84, Thailand's Prime Minister from 1975-76; in Bangkok. In a case of politics imitating art, Kukrit assumed office 12 years after starring opposite Marlon Brando in the film The Ugly American--in the role of a Southeast Asian Prime Minister.

DIED. HENRY ROTH, 89, author of the acclaimed 1934 novel Call It Sleep, about a Jewish immigrant boy's life in a New York City slum; in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Despite his youthful success, he failed to publish another novel for 60 years.

DIED. LORD HOME OF THE HIRSEL, 92, who, as Sir Alec Douglas-Home, was British Prime Minister from 1963 until the Conservative Party lost the 1964 elections; in Berwickshire. The Scottish patrician changed party rules to let legislators pick their leader--thus assuring he would be the last blue blood to head the Tories. He also served two stints as Foreign Secretary.