LEAD: In a dramatic move to ward off a takeover, Gencorp Inc. said yesterday that it would spend $1.6 billion in cash to buy back more than half its stock.

Article 358187 -- No Title

LEAD: The Dow Jones industrial average surpassed 2,400 for the first time in early trading yesterday and finished the day up 15.20 points, at 2,405.54.

DOW PASSES 2,400 ON A 15.20 ADVANCE

LEAD: After years of nomadic or cramped existence, some of New York City's best-known performers - Twyla Tharp, the Big Apple Circus and Dance Theater Workshop - are competing with one another for an extraordinary, if unlikely, new home: the old ferry house at the foot of Whitehall Street.

CULTURAL GROUPS SEEK NEW HOME IN OLD FERRY HOUSE

LEAD: Jail Term for Corruption  Richard L. Rubin, once a State Assembly aide and top Queens Democrat, was sentenced to five years in prison for payroll fraud. Page B1.  Dow Average Over 2,400  The Dow Jones industrial average exceeded 2,400 for the first time, rising 15.20 points, to 2,405.54, after soaring nearly 70 points on Friday.

INSIDE

LEAD: As thousands of Government troops swept northern El Salvador over the weekend seeking leftist rebels who destroyed one of the army's most important bases last week, the guerrillas themselves nonchalantly held a town meeting in this village just four miles from the devastated fort.

SALVADOR REBELS AT TOWN MEETING

LEAD: RELYING on new concepts of the human brain, scientists are progressing rapidly in experiments with nerve-cell transplants that promise to halt and perhaps cure a variety of devastating brain disorders.

ON THE FRONTIERS OF BRAIN SURGERY

LEAD: Reacting to scandals that have engulfed the Democratic Party in New York City, top state Democratic leaders yesterday recommended an unprecedented code of ethics for state, county, town and village party leaders.

NEW YORK DEMOCRATS BACK ETHICS CODE 9M0>

LEAD: The bodies of three men were found in the muddy Schoharie Creek today as investigators focused on the floodwaters that swirled around a bridge on the Gov. Thomas E. Dewey Thruway when it suddenly collapsed and sent the motorists plunging to their deaths.

TEMPORARY THRUWAY LINK SOUGHT

LEAD: ''I pioneered lip-syncing videos on the Island,'' Eliot Goshman was saying in a rare quiet moment between parties. He was heading southbound on the Wantagh Parkway in his Voyager mini-van. Destination: Kim Padron's Sweet 16 party.

Our Towns; A Video Pioneer Uses Lip-Syncing To Get 'Psyched'

LEAD: The Standard Oil Company said yesterday that its financial advisers had determined that the $70-a-share bid from the British Petroleum Company for the Standard Oil stock it does not already own was inadequate and should be ''at least $85 a share.''

STANDARD OIL ADVISERS CALL B.P. BID INADEQUATE

LEAD: Thomas H. Wyman, the former chairman of CBS Inc. who was ousted in a board room revolt last September, received a settlement of more than $4.3 million and an annual payment of $400,000 for life, according to a CBS proxy statement released yesterday.

CBS GAVE WYMAN $4.3 MILLION

LEAD: For Chong Yong Hi, a 35-year-old housewife, her country's phenomenal economic growth means an apartment of her own after years of scrimping and living five to a room.

BOOM TIME IN SOUTH KOREA: AN ERA OF DIZZYING CHANGE

LEAD: In a stunning display of boxing artistry and perseverance, Sugar Ray Leonard, with just one fight in five years, scored a 12-round split decision over Marvelous Marvin Hagler to win the World Boxing Council's middleweight championship tonight at the Caesars Palace outdoor arena.

LEONARD BEATS HAGLER FOR TITLE ON SPLIT DECISION

LEAD: Two New York City correction officers were dismissed yesterday and nine others - including an Assistant Deputy Warden and a Captain - were transferred as a result of a fight at a Brooklyn jail on March 24.

2 GUARDS DISMISSED OVER BROOKLYN JAIL VIOLENCE

LEAD: THE ''writing process'' - the ideas that ferment in the mind before pen hits paper - has long been considered a mystery. So students are usually taught mechanics: grammar, syntax, usage, spelling. But teachers who emphasize mechanics ignore 99 percent of the process and perform a disservice to students, according to David S.

WRITING STUDIES: BEYOND MECHANICS

LEAD: President Reagan said today that he had ''agreed to consider'' a proposal by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney that Canada and the United States negotiate a ''bilateral accord'' controlling acid rain.

REAGAN SAYS HE'LL CONSIDER TALKS WITH THE CANADIANS ON ACID RAIN

LEAD: Over the past two years, the dollar's unrelenting decline has cost Japanese investors huge paper losses in the value of their various holdings in this country. But they are not selling off.

JAPANESE FUNDS STILL POUR IN: LITTLE AFFECTED BY DOLLAR FALL

BUSINESS DIGEST: TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 1987

LEAD: In a major setback to Texaco Inc.'s battle for survival, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that a Federal District Court should not have excused the company from posting a bond of more than $10 billion while it appealed a damage award that the Pennzoil Company won against Texaco in 1985.

TEXACO SET BACK BY SUPREME COURT IN PENNZOIL CASE

LEAD: Japan's moves to cut the production of computer chips could lead to a shortage of the vital semiconductors, some computer and semiconductor industry executives said today.

CUTS BY JAPAN NOW SPUR FEARS OF CHIP SHORTAGE

LEAD: A Queens lawyer who has been described as a ''power broker'' for the late Donald R. Manes was sentenced yesterday to five years in Federal prison, given five more years on probation and ordered to pay nearly $413,500 in fines and restitution.

PRISON TERM FOR EX-AIDE IN ASSEMBLY

LEAD: The Soviet Union, in a shift, has offered to postpone its demand for a total nuclear test ban and to concentrate first on intermediate testing limitations.

MOSCOW OFFERING TO PUT OFF A BAN ON ATOM TESTING

LEAD: THE Pentagon is eyeing NASA's proposed space station for a bevy of projects and missions that would propel the Department of Defense into a new era of space operations in the 21st century. The military's vision, while offering a new source of political support for the embattled space agency, also promises to heat the simmering controversy over plans for a manned station in space.

SPACE STATION IS STUDIED BY MILITARY

LEAD: IT is as if the young bully's life were destined to leave his victims laughing last.

THE BULLY: NEW RESEARCH DEPICTS A PARANOID, LIFELONG LOSER ,

LEAD: * Ames Department Stores Inc., Rocky Hill, Conn., named Duane Wolter executive vice president and chief financial officer, succeeding Ralph M. Shulansky, who will continue as senior vice president, administration and investor relations.

EXECUTIVE CHANGES

José Martín Cáceres Silva is an Uruguayan professional footballer for Paraguayan Primera División club Libertad. Mainly a centre-back, he can also play on either flank, mostly as a right-back.

Martín Cáceres, Uruguayan footballer

Martín_Cáceres

Eelco Sintnicolaas is a Dutch track and field athlete, specialising in the decathlon.

Eelco Sintnicolaas, Dutch decathlete

Eelco_Sintnicolaas

Jamar Smith is an American professional basketball player for Pallacanestro Reggiana of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). Standing at 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), he plays the shooting guard position. He played collegiate basketball at Illinois and then at Southern Indiana.

April 7, 1987

Headlines from April 7, 1987

Article 358187 -- No Title

DOW PASSES 2,400 ON A 15.20 ADVANCE

CULTURAL GROUPS SEEK NEW HOME IN OLD FERRY HOUSE

INSIDE

SALVADOR REBELS AT TOWN MEETING

Billboard 200

Licensed To Ill

Slippery When Wet

Graceland

The Way It Is

Control

Notable Births

Historical Context for April 7, 1987