Head of Rockefeller Foundation, John Knowles, Dies of Cancer

Dr. John H. Knowles '47, president of the Rockefeller Foundation and a member of the Board of Overseers, died yesterday afternoon at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he had once served as the institution's youngest director. He was 52 years old.

Knowles, who had been hospitalized eight weeks with pancreatic cancer, became president of the Rockefeller Foundation seven years ago. The foundation provides grants amounting to $44 million a year to medical research and to projects which address social problems throughout the world.

At age 35 Knowles became the youngest general director of MGH, where he began some structural changes to eliminate what he called "the cattle-car concept of medicine." He replaced long wooden benches in the hospital's emergency ward and outpatient department with comfortable modern chairs and remodeled stark waiting rooms.

Under his direction the hospital established a medical station at Logan International Airport and pioneered the practice of transmitting medical information over television.

As an undergraduate at Harvard Knowles played in jazz groups and participated in varsity athletics. He pitched for the baseball team, was a hockey goalie and played squash. He received his M.D. from Washington University School of Medicine.

Surviving Knowles are his wife, mother, brother, two daughters and four sons, one of whom, John Jr., is a senior at Harvard.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete, Martin Bander, an MGH spokesman, said last night.