Milestones: Jan. 19, 1968

Born. To Peter Duchin, 30, society's favorite music man, and Cheray Zauderer Duchin, 26: their second child, first daughter; in Manhattan.

Born. To Lorne Greene, 52, honcho of TV's Bonanza, and Nancy Deale Greene, 34, onetime actress whom he married in 1961: their first child, a daughter (Greene has 23-year-old twins by his first wife); in Hollywood.

Died. Louis Block, 58, recipient of the world's fifth heart transplant (see MEDICINE).

Died. Roy Reuther, 58, labor organizer and second of the U.A.W.'s three Reuther brothers; of a heart attack; in Detroit. With Walter and Victor, Roy was a driving force in the early days of the U.A.W., personally plotted and led the first successful strike against General Motors in Flint, Mich., in 1937 —a landmark victory that gave the infant U.A.W. the impetus that eventually made it the second largest union in the U.S.

Died. Michael Popp, 62, Ike's Army tailor during World War II who, after the general complained about his bulky, hip-length officer's jacket, snipped out the natty, waist-length "Eisenhower jacket," which became the most popular bit of military wardrobe since the trench coat; of a heart attack; in Hamilton, Ohio.

Died. Dr. Theophilus Ebenhaezer Dönges, 69, longtime South African statesman; after a series of strokes; in Cape Town. As Minister of Interior from 1948 to 1958, Donges pushed through South Africa's Parliament the harsh dogmas of apartheid—absolute racial partition, mandatory identification papers for all blacks, no mixed marriages, and no voting rights for persons of mixed blood—then, as Finance Minister from 1958 to 1966, bent himself to the more creditable task of successfully building a vigorous, stable economy for his gold-rich country. His real ambition was to be Prime Minister, but he finally settled for the largely ceremonial office of President, only to suffer a stroke 20 days before his scheduled inauguration last May.

Died. James L. B. Smith, 70, ichthyologist who first identified the coelacanth, a fish believed extinct for 70 million years; by his own hand (cyanide); in Grahamstown, South Africa. Until 1938, when a coelacanth was caught off the South African coast, scientists had seen it only in fossil form, a five-foot-long creature whose weird, leglike fins marked it a close relative of the amphibians that first linked sea and land animals. In the years since, a dozen coelacanths have been found, though Smith never realized his dream of studying one alive. His suicide did not surprise his wife. "He always thought," she explained, "that the best time to die was when a man was in the flush of his manhood, before he became a nuisance."

Died. Pierre van Paassen, 72, Dutch-born foreign correspondent, author and minister; after a long illness; in Manhattan. As a correspondent for the New York Evening World and Toronto Star from 1924 to 1935, Van Paassen attacked fascism with such gusto that he was thrown out of Germany and Italy; as an author, he wrote a dozen instant histories and produced in 1939 an autobiographical bestseller in Days of Our Years. After World War II, he went to the pulpit and devoted nearly all his time to battling religious and political intolerance as a Unitarian minister.