Presuming there isn't any terrible rusting/bending/dents/cracks/fucked threads it looks like a perfectly acceptable frame. In any case anything you buy to convert it will be equally applicable to other old road frames, so you could always swap for another frame if something better comes up.
That looks like a standard steel fork. The death fork is pictured extensively here: http://uvasux.googlepages.com/viscountbicycle
Presuming there isn't any terrible rusting/bending/dents/cracks/fucked threads it looks like a perfectly acceptable frame. In any case anything you buy to convert it will be equally applicable to other old road frames, so you could always swap for another frame if something better comes up.