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Died. William Francis O'Neil, 75, rugged, restless founder in 1915 and president until last April of the diversified industrial giant, The General Tire & Rubber Co.; of a heart ailment; in Akron, Ohio. A onetime worker in his father's Akron department store and later a Kansas City Firestone dealer, "W.O." O'Neil boosted General into the rubber industry's "Big Five" before branching in the 19405 into radio (as a sounding board to blast the United Rubber Workers) and rocketry (after a son was lost when a World War II rescue plane was unable to take off). Although his battle to acquire "enough diversification so that my sons [four surviving] wouldn't have to scrap with each other" eventually made him the producer of everything from badminton birds to wrought iron. O'Neil kept tabs on the bosses of his 46 far-flung subsidiaries and affiliates with the frequent query, "Why the hell aren't you fellows making more money?" Last year his General Tire, which netted $620 in 1915, made $26 million on a $703 million gross.
Died. Cornelia Bryce Pinchot, 79, widow of Pennsylvania's former Republican Governor Gifford Pinchot, herself a headline-making political activist twice defeated in congressional campaigns; of a circulatory ailment; in Washington, D.C.
Died. Edith Nourse Rogers, 79, Republican Massachusetts Congresswoman f°r 35 years, a descendant of a Salem witch and longtime legislative champion of armed service veterans; of a heart attack; in Boston.
Died. Vincent Riggio, 82, president from 1946 to 1950 and board chairman the following year of The American Tobacco Co.; of a heart attack; in Mount Kisco, N.Y. Born in Sicily, Riggio was a $3-a-week Manhattan pantsmaker at 14, got a job selling Pall Malls in 1905. Possessed of a fluent tongue, an active imagination and a driving manner, Riggio was chosen to introduce Lucky Strikes in 1917, replaced flamboyant George Washington Hill as American Tobacco's president in 1946.
Died. Wilhelm Pieck, 84, patriarch of the German Communist Party and since 1949 East Germany's first President; of a heart attack; in East Berlin. A survival artist who deserted the Kaiser's army in World War I, but returned to Germany in 1918 to become a charter member of the German Communists' central commit tee, Pieck escaped to the Soviet Union the following year, when the committee's two leaders were slain (said one of them, Rosa Luxemburg: "Pieck was my most faithful, but also my most stupid student"), fled to Russia again before World War II. Coming back with the Red troops, the onetime carpenter was elected to the ceremonial post of President with a bigger vote (99.58%) than Hitler ever got.