Milestones, May 10, 1971

Divorced. Bess Myerson Grant, 46, former Miss America (1945) and now commissioner of consumer affairs for New York City; by Arnold Grant, 63, a New York attorney; no children. It was their second parting. They were first married in 1962, divorced five years later, and remarried in 1968.

Died. Elmo Roper, 10, dean of modern political pollsters; in Norwalk, Conn. Roper first realized the value of polls in the late 1920s, when he became an ace clock salesman by sampling the tastes of his customers. He co-founded a New York market-research firm in 1933 and then became the first pollster to adapt scientific sampling techniques in forecasting an election; he predicted F.D.R.’s 1936 plurality within one percentage point of the popular vote. The Literary Digest—then the big gun of polling—picked Alf Landon as the winner. Though he conducted polls for FORTUNE and commented on public opinion in a syndicated newspaper column. Roper inveighed against “that new breed of animal—the poll-itician.”

Died. Dr. Karl Blessing, 71, former president of West Germany’s Bundesbank; of a heart attack; in Rasteau, France. An advocate of tight-money policies, Blessing first rose to national prominence as the youngest member of the directorate of Hitler’s Reichsbank, a post he lost in 1939 for opposing the Führer’s rearmament policies as inflationary. As Bundesbank president from 1958 to 1969, he fought tenaciously for the stability of the mark during his country’s 1966-67 recession and carried out a 9% upward revaluation of the mark.

Died. T.V. Soong, 77, former Chinese Nationalist official and member of the fabled Soong “dynasty”; of food lodged in his windpipe; in San Francisco. The Harvard-educated son of a Shanghai Bible publisher, and wealthy brother-in-law of both Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kaishek, Soong was called the Alexander Hamilton of China for making economic reforms as Chiang’s young Minister of Finance. Soong later rallied the support of Shanghai bankers for the Generalissimo in his 1927 power struggle with the Communists. But during World War II Soong cooperated with Chou En-lai in forging a Nationalist-Communist alliance against the invading Japanese. As Foreign Minister, Soong shuttled among Western capitals seeking financial help for his government. He scored his biggest success with F.D.R. Appointed Premier in 1944, Soong resigned two years later after failing to solve his country’s critical fiscal problems. He moved to New York shortly before the Nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949. The following year, Soong declined Chiang’s invitation to join the island government.

moved to New York shortly before the Nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949. The following year, Soong declined Chiang’s invitation to join the island government.