Milestones, Feb. 27, 1978

MARRIED. Joan Bennett, 67, sultry movie siren of the 1930s and ’40s, who starred in some 80 films (Father of the Bride, Careless Lady, Little Women) and the TV series Dark Shadows; and David Wilde, 60, a retired publisher, publicist and investor; she for the fourth time, he for the second; in White Plains, N. Y.

DIED. Ilka Chase, 72, ultrasophisticated actress, author and wit; of internal hemorrhage; in Mexico City. While pursuing an acting career on stage (The Women, Forsaking All Others) and screen (Now, Voyager; Fast and Loose), Chase wrote more than a dozen books, including her memoirs Past Imperfect. The self-image she projected was that of a cool, sharp-tongued woman. If Journalist Dorothy Thompson didn’t know as much as God, Chase once remarked, she most certainly knew as much as God did at her age.

DIED. Abraham Rattner, 82, fiery Jewish artist best known for his brilliantly colored paintings with religious themes; of heart disease; in Manhattan. Born in the U.S. to parents who had fled from the Russian pogroms, Rattner after World War I settled in France, where his work was influenced by both the impressionist and the cubist schools. He returned to the U.S. in 1940 convinced by the rise of Nazism that art should not merely concern itself with style, but should deal with moral and spiritual issues. These he depicted not only on canvas but in tapestries, stained-glass windows and portfolios of prints. Among Rattner’s best-known works are the paintings Gomorrah and Vision of Ezekiel, and a stained-glass window in a Chicago synagogue called And God Said: Let There Be Light.

DIED. James Bryant Conant, 84, scientist, diplomat, educational reformer and president of Harvard University for 20 years; of heart disease; in Hanover, N.H. A chemist during World War I and a professor of chemistry at Harvard for 14 years thereafter, Conant was partly responsible for the World War II decision to make an atomic bomb and to use it at Hiroshima in 1945. As president of Harvard (1933-53), the self-effacing but stubborn Conant instituted a number of improvements that changed the character of higher education: he broadened the makeup of the student body, argued for a core curriculum of “general education” and promoted national scholarships. He left Harvard to become High Commissioner to Germany and subsequently the first Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany. Upon his return to the U.S. in 1957, Conant conducted a wide-ranging study of American high schools, and later of junior high schools, that pointed out a need for higher standards and stricter teachers’ qualifications. A firm believer in egalitarianism, Conant provoked controversy for his lambasting of private schools and was also one of the first educators to warn of the “social dynamite” inherent in the poverty of the ghettos.