Sol M. Linowitz, 91; aided Panama Canal, Mideast talks

WASHINGTON -- Sol M. Linowitz, a diplomat, lawyer, and businessman who played key roles in Middle East peace negotiations and the Panama Canal treaty during the Carter administration, died yesterday. He was 91.

The onetime chairman of Xerox Corp. died at his home in Washington.

Mr. Linowitz was ambassador to the Organization of American States during the Johnson administration and in 1977 helped negotiate the historic transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama. He also represented President Carter in Middle East peace negotiations that followed the 1978 Camp David accords.

In awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998, President Clinton said: ''If every world leader had half the vision Sol Linowitz does, we would have about a tenth as many problems as we've got in this whole world today."

A graduate of Cornell University Law School, Mr. Linowitz was partner and then senior counsel to the international law firm of Coudert Brothers from 1969 to 1994.

He wrote two books: ''The Making of a Public Man: A Memoir," and ''The Betrayed Profession," in which he lamented what he saw as the decline of the legal profession. In 1979, Mr. Linowitz joined the board of Academy for Educational Development, a nonprofit group that works to improve educational, health, and economic opportunities in the United States and developing countries.

Mr. Linowitz leaves his wife, Toni, whom he married in 1939. They had four daughters and eight grandchildren.