Milestones Jan. 30, 1995

STEPPING DOWN. NORMAN PODHORETZ, 65, editor and writer; as the editor in chief of Commentary; in New York City. During his 35-year stewardship, Podhoretz transformed the Jewish monthly from a voice of liberal social concern to a promoter of hard-line anti-Sovietism abroad and a basher of all things leftish and countercultural at home. The changes mirrored Podhoretz’s own political evolution as one of the most influential-and certainly the most inescapable-of neoconservatives.

DIED. RON LUCIANO, 57, former umpire; from suicide by carbon-monoxide poisoning; in Endicott, New York. Luciano’s 11 Astroturf-chewing years of calls and confrontations paved the way for a second career as a sports commentator and author of books titled with baseball-related puns.

DIED. MEHDI BAZARGAN, 87, former Prime Minister of Iran; in Zurich. Originally an engineering professor, the soft-spoken Bazargan was imprisoned for his human-rights activism during the reign of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, making Bazargan a natural choice for Prime Minister of the provisional government formed after the Shah fled in 1979. But Bazargan’s relationship with the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Revolutionary Council soon deteriorated into a bitter power struggle, culminating in his resignation just nine months later.

Died. VERA MAXWELL, 93, fashion designer, in Rincon, Puerto Rico. From her cotton proto-jumpsuit fashioned for riveting Rosies during World War II to 1974’s “Speed Suit”-a zipperless, buttonless dress that could be pulled on in seconds-Maxwell pioneered sportswear for women that was as comfortable as it was chic, earning herself the sobriquet “the American Chanel.” Maxwell’s sources of inspiration were marvelously eclectic: a 1935 visit with Albert Einstein was said to have prompted her to copy his tweed jacket and add two skirts, a pair of pants and an extra jacket to create her classic “Weekend Wardrobe.”