Died. Ross McWhirter, 50, master of trivia, which he collected with his identical twin Norris in their Guinness Book of World Records, a compilation of every conceivable record, and holder of one in its own right as the alltime best-selling copyrighted book; after being gunned down at his doorstep following his public offer of a $100,000 reward for the apprehension of I.R.A. killers; in London.

Died. Dr. Lewis Dahl, 60, chief of staff of the Hospital of the Medical Research Center at Brookhaven National Laboratory; of cancer; in Upton, N.Y. Dahl's pioneering experiments, dating back to the late 1940s, revealed the link between hypertension and the quantity of salt in the diet.

Died. Henry Townley Heald, 71, former president of the Ford Foundation, world's largest, most influential, philanthropic trust; in Winter Park, Fla. The lanky native of Lincoln, Neb., became the first president of the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he served from 1940 to 1952. For the next four years he was chancellor of New York University and helped to unify its many schools and divisions before joining Ford in 1956. Under Heald, grants to education were nearly 50% of the $1.75 billion the Ford Foundation dispensed during the nine years of his presidency. Heald believed that foundations should provide venture capital for innovative programs rather than pick up "leftovers off the government table." In 1965, his last year with Ford, the foundation invested $5 million to support the International Rice Research Institute, which made a key contribution to the "Green Revolution" by developing higher-yield rice strains.

Died. Paul Aldermandt Porter, 71, eminent Washington lawyer and raconteur, who held a string of important federal posts three decades ago; after choking on a bite of lobster in a Washington restaurant. Porter worked his way through Kentucky Wesleyan College and the University of Kentucky College of Law with newspaper jobs, and in 1929 became editor of the La Grange (Ga.) News. He served as publicity director for the Democratic National Committee during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1944 campaign, later became chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, head of the Office of Price Administration, then the ambassador leading the U.S. economic mission to Greece, until 1947, when he joined former U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Thurman Arnold and former Under Secretary of the Interior Abe Fortas in forming one of Washington's leading law firms.

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