MILESTONES

By ELIZABETH BLAND, DANIEL EISENBERG, ANITA HAMILTON, JANICE M. HOROWITZ, NADYA LABI, JAMIE MALANOWKSI AND JOEL STEIN

SETTLEMENT REACHED. Between the PISCATAWAY BOARD OF EDUCATION and SHARON TAXMAN, a white business teacher who sued the board for reverse discrimination after she was laid off in favor of a black colleague with equal seniority; for $433,500; in Piscataway, N.J.

DIED. MICHAEL HUTCHENCE, 37, sultry INXS front man; reportedly by hanging himself; at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel; in Double Bay, Australia. Formed in 1977 as the Farriss Brothers (a reference to three of the five members), the Aussie band later opted for INXS--much hipper and better suited to Hutchence's hard-driving, sinewy appeal. The hit What You Need was topped by the bravura album Kick in 1987. Hutchence dabbled in film but stayed loyal to the band, which had been preparing for its 20th anniversary tour.

DIED. RUSS MEYER, 74, hot-tempered pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers and other teams; of heart failure; in Oglesby, Ill. Over the course of 13 seasons, Meyers pitched in three World Series, but his most memorable performance was a dugout tantrum in 1953 that justified his moniker, "the Mad Monk."

DIED. GEORGES MARCHAIS, 77, France's die-hard Communist chief who inadvertently hastened his party's withering away; in Paris. Marchais remained a Stalinist, with unambiguous results: during his Secretary-Generalship (1972-94), the Communist Party's popular support dropped more than 50%.

DIED. HAROLD GENEEN, 87, empire builder; of a heart attack; in New York City. During his 18 years as CEO of International Telephone & Telegraph (1959 to 1977), Geneen used some 300 takeovers to build ITT into one of history's most sprawling conglomerates, only to see a successor, Rand Araskog, strip down the company to its hotel-and-gaming core, which is likely to be sold.

DIED. GRAYSON KIRK, 94, imperious former president of Columbia University; in Bronxville, N.Y. After he was appointed in 1953, the university's endowments quadrupled. For all his financial acumen, Kirk grossly miscalculated, when he called in 1,000 police in 1968 to quell antiwar protests. Hundreds of students were arrested and dozens injured.