(NYT6) NEW YORK — April 17, 2003 — OBIT-ATKINS — Dr. Robert C. Atkins, a cardiologist who devised a controversial diet favoring pork chops over pasta and butter over bran, which more than 30 million Americans have tried, died today at New York Weill-Cornell Medical Center. He was 72. Atkins fell and suffered head injuries on April 8 in front of his Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in Manhattan, where he also lived. Atkins in a 1996 file photo having lunch in a New York restaurant. (Edward Keating/The New York Times)