Milestones Oct. 23, 1995

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.