Milestones, Nov. 27, 1978

SEEKING DIVORCE. Barry Goldwater Jr., 40, five-term Republican Congressman from California and son of the Arizona Senator; from Susan Gherman Goldwater, 32, host of the Ohio talk show Columbus Alive; after six years of marriage, one son; in Los Angeles.

DIED. Richard D. Chapman, 67, the Ben Hogan of amateur golf; of a stroke; in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. The affluent Chapman studied his hobby as if it were his profession, qualified to play in 19 Masters tournaments and, among other victories over his three-decade career, captured the U.S. and British national championships.

DIED. Margaret Mead, 76, renowned anthropologist, author, and critic of cultures both primitive and modern; in New York City (see BEHAVIOR).

DIED. W. Douglas Burden, 80, naturalist and explorer; in Charlotte, Vt. Trained in paleontology, Burden led an expedition to the Dutch East Indies island of Komodo in 1926 in search of the vicious Komodo dragon. He became the first white man to capture the reptile, the world's oldest and, at 10 ft. and 250 Ibs., largest lizard; of the 14 specimens he collected, two may be seen in the American Museum of Natural History. Burden's exploits inspired a friend, Film Director Merian Cooper, to make King Kong. Interested in filming undersea life, Burden in 1938 joined with Ilia Tolstoy, grandson of the Russian writer, and Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney to open Marineland, a studio aquarium near St. Augustine, Fla.

DIED. Clifford F. Hood, 84, president of U.S. Steel from 1953 to 1959; in Palm Beach, Fla. Starting as a clerk in U.S. Steel-owned American Steel & Wire Co. in 1917, Hood served as that firm's president for twelve years (1938-49) before moving over to the top post of another subsidiary, Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corp. In 1951 he was responsible for the construction of the $400 million Fairless Works near Morrisville, Pa., one of the largest steel complexes ever built, and two years later he won the presidency of "Big Steel."

DIED. Izetta Jewel Miller, 94, former actress and early feminist who twice ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate, from West Virginia, in the early 1920s; in La Jolla, Calif. Active in the women's movement before World War I, Miller reigned as the leading lady of Washington, D.C., theater and was President Woodrow Wilson's favorite actress.