Neil MacNeil, 85, who spent decades covering Congress for Time magazine, died Saturday of lung cancer, his daughter said. He arrived in Washington in 1949 to report on Congress for the United Press. He worked for Time from 1958 until his retirement in 1987. He became one of the first congressional correspondents on TV in 1964 with his program, "Neil MacNeil Reports," which continued until 1967. His 1963 book about the House, "Forge of Democracy: The House of Representatives," was considered by many to be required reading for reporters new to Washington.

Stewart R. Mott, 70, a philanthropist whose gifts to progressive and sometimes offbeat causes were often upstaged by his eccentricities, died Thursday night after a long battle with cancer. He had homes in North Salem, N.Y., and Bermuda. He was known for, among other things, cultivating a farm with 460 plant species (including 17 types of radishes), atop his Manhattan penthouse. He once said he lay awake wondering how to grow a better radish.

He seemed to relish poking at General Motors, a company that his father, Charles Stewart Mott, helped shape as an early high executive. He lambasted GM for not speaking out against the Vietnam War. He gave money to a neighborhood group opposing a new GM plant because it would involve razing 1,500 homes.

Stewart was born when his father was 62. The gap, when combined with the father's standoffish manner, created an immense chasm. The father signed notes to his son, "Very truly yours, C.S. Mott," and hired a coach to teach him to ride a bike.

Stewart Mott seemed tailor-made for the 1960s and '70s, when he attracted his widest attention, not least for his all-too-candid comments about everything from his sex partners (full names in newsletters) to his father's parental deficiencies ("a zookeeper"). His philanthropy included birth control, sex research, arms control, feminism, civil liberties and gay rights. But his political giving was most visible. In 1968, he heavily bankrolled Sen. Eugene McCarthy's challenge to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Four years later, he was the biggest contributor to Democratic Sen. George McGovern.

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