Milestones: Jan. 4, 1963

Divorced. William August Bartholomae, 69, onetime California oil-field roughneck, who struck it rich on an odd lot of unwanted land, becoming one of the state's richest men with oil, mining and ranching interests; by Third Wife Sara Bartholomae, 47; on grounds of cruelty; after 19 years of marriage, two children; in Los Angeles. Settlement: $5,500,000.

Died. Aleksandr Vasilievich Topchiev, 55, chemist credited with a major role in developing the liquid rocket fuels that enabled the Soviets to build their huge space vehicles; of a heart attack; in Moscow. Topchiev was a frequent visitor to the Pugwash conferences staged in Nova Scotia by Russophile Industrialist Cyrus Eaton, where the chemist enjoyed preaching that science is above national politics. But he had a pragmatic side: in 1958, a fellow Russian remarked that what he feared most was an accidental and irresponsible attack on Russia by the U.S., and Topchiev grinned back: "What I fear most is responsible bombing by SAC."

Died. James Patrick McGranery, 67, U.S. Attorney General in the Truman Administration's last year, a onetime New Deal Democratic Congressman from Philadelphia (1936-43) who was brought in to clean house in the Justice Department after Truman fired his predecessor, J. Howard McGrath; of a heart attack; in Palm Beach. The Washington Daily News hooted that "the Administration now will hide its grapes of McGrath in the ever normal McGranery," but McGranery went at it with a will, bounced Justice bureaucrats, freely fired crooked U.S. marshals, and started proceedings to deport such Mafia mobsters as Frank Costello.

Died. Taube Coller Davis, seventyish, U.S. fashion oracle known for 35 years by her professional name of "Tobe"; of a heart attack; in Manhattan. Bubbly but ever so shrewd, Tobe gave advice through her syndicated columns in some 50 papers, her newsletters (printed on blue paper with breezy peach covers), her $1,000-a-day consultations, and her 150-girl Tobe-Coburn School for Fashion Careers. Her Manhattan town house was a rendezvous for mannequins and matrons, and her influence was such that in 1953 the French government made her a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

Died. Lawrence Langner, 72, founder, lifelong director and guiding spirit of the Theatre Guild, which turned repertory theater into a high art in the U.S., brought Eugene O'Neill and George Bernard Shaw to the Broadway stage and serious drama to other major U.S. cities; of a heart attack; in Manhattan. A Welshman who emigrated to the U.S. at 21, Langner organized the Theatre Guild in 1918 and saw it grow into a vast commercial success in the '40s and '50s with its own radio shows and scores of Broad way productions. A sometime playwright himself, Langner built the Westport (Conn.) Country Playhouse, with his wife, Actress Armina Marshall, in 1931 for summer stock and pre-Broadway tryouts, in 1950 started the American Shakespeare Festival Theater in Stratford, Conn. All the while, he led a double career, enjoying a rich practice as one of the nation's top patent attorneys, securing rights to his own brainstorms (such as a land-mine destroyer) as well as protecting the inventions of others.