Ronald N. Kornblum, 74, the Los Angeles County coroner who performed autopsies on such celebrities as John Belushi, William Holden, Natalie Wood, Karen Carpenter and Truman Capote, died last Tuesday at his home in La Canada-Flintridge, Calif., after a long illness.

Kornblum served eight years as county coroner before resigning in 1990 amid charges of poor management.

For a time received praise for improving the efficiency and professionalism of the medical examiner's office. He attributed his department's later failings to a rise in county homicides that strained the office's resources. Kornblum said he had performed the job "as responsibly as possible, in a climate of continual turmoil and upheaval."

He was frequently consulted as an expert on choke-hold deaths and testified in the "preppie killer" case involving the 1986 strangulation of a young woman in New York's Central Park.

Marc Raeff, 85, a Russian emigre who came to the United States at 18, served in the Army during World War II and became one of the country's leading scholars of Russian history, died Sept. 20 in Teaneck, N.J. Raeff taught Russian history and Russian studies at Columbia University from 1961 to 1988. His books included "Origins of the Russian Intelligentsia" and "Understanding Imperial Russia."

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