Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 35

300 Dr. Virginia Rooney-Pagano, 65, of Bayville Virginia Rooney-Pagano of Bayville, a Glen Cove and Oyster Bay pediatrician, died Wednesday at Glen Cove Community Hospital of diabetes and kidney failure. She was 65. Dr. Rooney-Pagano had worked at the hospital for 18 years until she retired in December, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Dr. Harold Levine, senior partner at Oyster Bay Pediatric Associates, where Dr. Rooney-Pagano worked part-time for about the past three years, said, "Her patients adored her She was extremely conscientious and she just never gave up. It's incredible how sick she was and she still kept Dr. Rooney-Pagano, a longtime Oyster Bay resident before moving to Bayville, received an undergraduate degree from D'Youville College in Buffalo before attending New York Medical College in Manhattan, family members said.

She interned at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan and completed her residency at Misericordia Hospital in the Bronx. Her daughter, Anne Hogwa of Bayville, remembered her mother as "an old-fashioned pediatrician that cared for the whole family, the kind of doctor who didn't charge for half the people she After her residency, Dr. Rooney-Pagano researched child abuse, allergies and asthma while working at St. Vincent's, at Misericordia, at St.

John's Episcopal Hospital in Queens and at the New York Foundling Hospital in Manhattan, family members said. Other survivors include her husband, Vito Pagano; four sons, Eugene Pagano of Oyster Bay, Peter Pagano of Houston, Texas, Vincent Pagano of Mascoutah, and Robert Pagano of Bayville; three brothers, Eugene Rooney of Woodstock, Francis Rooney and Joseph Rooney of New York City; and four grandchildren. Dr. Rooney-Pagano was buried yesterday in St. Mary's Cemetery in Queens.

Donations may be made to the American Diabetic Association or the National Kidney Foundation. Ryder F. Cooke, Retiree, Worked With Visually Impaired Ryder F. Cooke, 71, of North Merrick, a retired accountant, died Thursday of acute leukemia at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre. Mr.

Cooke had been an inventory control clerk for Histacount a business forms and stationery printing company in Melville. He retired in September, 1984, after five years with the company. "He was a fine individual, always concerned about his fellow workers, and he was charitable," said Doreen Farrell, the company's manager of personnel administration. Before working at Histacount, Mr. Cooke had been office manager 15 years for the now defunct Belmont Electric Co.

in Elmont. He was a graduate of Brooklyn Preparatory School and Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio. Mr. Cooke had been regional coordinator of the Bishop's Annual Appeal for Catholic Charities for the past dozen years. He was past president of the Holy Name Society and the Usher Society of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in North Merrick, where he was an extraordinary minister, who helps the priest give out communion at mass.

He also was a member of the parish council. Mr. Cooke was a longtime volunteer for Catholic Charities in Lynbrook, working with the visually impaired. Survivors include his wife of 25 years, Monica, and two brothers, Richard and Robert, both of Bradenton, Fla. A funeral mass was said at Sacred Heart Church Saturday; burial, Holy Rood Cemetery, Westbury.

The family asks that donations in his name be made to Visually Impaired, care of Catholic Charities, 272 Merrick Lynbrook, N.Y. 11563. -Sid Cassese NEW YORK CITY Joseph Wapniarski, 91, Ex-Custodian Maurice Blond, 73, a Manhattan insurance executive who was appointed to the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped by John F. Kennedy and served on the committee under every subsequent president, died of cancer Saturday in Beth Israel Medical Center. Mr.

Blond, who lived in Manhattan, was active in groups devoted to creating housing for the poor and in the arts and the theater. He was also active in Jewish organizations and was creator of the United Jewish Appeal Legacy Development Project, which to date has raised more than $100 million. Former Israel Prime Minister Shimon Peres gave him a special award "in grateful recognition of his effort" for the UJA project. WORLD NATION Germain Bazin, 88, a noted art historian and former chief curator of the Louvre, died Thursday. Mr.

Bazin studied art in Paris and became an art professor at the University of Brussels in 1934. He returned to Paris in 1936 as a curator of paintings at the Louvre. He was named chief curator of the Louvre's 10,000 paintings in 1951 and served in the post until 1965, when he left to head the painting restoration section of France's vast national museum system for five years. Milton S. Gelman, 70, whose hundreds of writing credits included scripts for the TV series "Bonanza," "Perry Mason" and "Quincy," died of heart disease last Wednesday in a hospital in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

He wrote for 25 years for TV series, including "Banyon," "'The High Chaparral," "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," "Tales of Wells Fargo," "Mr. Novak" and "Schlitz Playhouse of Stars." George W. Latimer, 89, the former Utah Supreme Court Justice who was a defense attorney in the My Lai massacre court-martial of William Calley, died in Salt Lake City Wednesday. Mr. Latimer was elected to the Utah Supreme Court in 1946, serving for five years until he was appointed by then-President Harry Truman to a 10-year term as an associate judge on the U.S.

Court of Military Appeals in Washington. After returning to private law practice, he was hired to represent Calley in his court-martial for the 1968 slayings of more than 22 civilians at My Lai during the Vietnam War. Mr. Latimer worked on the case from 1969 to 1974, appealing it through the military courts into the civil courts until Calley was released by a U.S. District Court judge because of constitutional violations in his military trial.

Joseph Wapniarski, 91, of Albertson, a retired World War was a founding member and former school custodian, died Saturday at Winthrop-Uni- commandant of the Polish-American War Veterversity Hospital in Mineola after a brief illness. ans of Nassau County. He also was a former presiMr. Wapniarski had been a custodian at Man- dent of the Polish Republican Club of the Town of hasset High School for about 10 years when he North Hempstead. retired in the mid-1960s.

Before that, he had been He lived in Roslyn for about 15 years into the a head carpenter with the Levitt Homes organiza- mid-1950s, then in Glen Cove for 15 years before tion for about 15 years. moving to Albertson. He had once owned a restaurant in Albertson Besides his grandson, survivors include his wife and a bakery in Williston Park. Before that, he had of 69 years, Anna; a daughter, Wanda Pietrzak of been a chauffeur for two families in Old Westbury. Albertson; a brother, James of Greenvale; a sister, "He was a good example of all of the strengths of Mary Tilley of Mt.

Sinai; and two great-grandsons. American immigrants who have made their way in Visiting is from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. today at the this country," said his grandson, Alfred R. Pietr- Roslyn Heights Funeral Home. A Mass of Chriszak of Pelham, N.Y., who added that his grandfa- tian Burial will be said at 9:30 a.m.

tomorrow at ther had come to this country from Poland when St. Hedwig's Roman Catholic Church in Floral he was very young. Park. Burial, Holy Rood Cemetery, Westbury. Mr.

Wapniarski, who served in the Army during -Sid Cassese Murray Schuss, Pharmaceutical Distributor Murray Schuss, a Lido Beach resident and co- gently and with a lot of fortitude, and now we're founder of the Bellco Drug Corp. of Lindenhurst, the single largest distributor of pharmaceuticals died Saturday of cancer at North Shore University and health and beauty aids" on Long Island. Hospital in Manhasset. He was 68. Another son, Eric Schuss of Dix Hills, said, "In Mr.

Schuss was born and raised in Brooklyn, everything he wanted to do, whether it was family, family members said, and served as an Army cor- his business, his leisure time, he lived life to the poral in World War II. fullest." Eric Schuss is president of Bellco. When he returned to war, Mr. Schuss was an active Kiwanis Club member New York after the Mr. Schuss married Beatrice Geller, who survives him.

In 1955, he and his late brother, Bernard, and avid paddleball player. Other survivors include another son, Howard of began their own business distributing pharmaceu- of Commack; and ticals and health and beauty aids. San Diego; a brother, Seymour "He started in 1955 in the basement of a Levit- six grandchildren. said his son, David J. Schuss of Funeral services were held yesterday, and burial town pharmacy," Beach, vice president-secretary of Bellco followed at Mt.

Ararat cemetery in North LindenLong Drug Corp. "He worked hard, he worked very dili- hurst. -Maureen Fan Mae S. Hong, 75, Circus, Theatrical Press Agent New York Mae S. Hong, 75, a press agent num Bailey Circus and the Clyde Beatty Circus whose clients included touring Broadway shows, and was one of the first women to work in the circuses, carnivals and the Harlem Globe Trotters, traditionally male world of traveling press agents.

died of cancer Friday at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Among the Broadway productions she representCancer Center in Manhattan. ed on road tours were "Carnival," "My Fair Lady," Mrs. Hong, who lived in Manhattan, was a na- "Mame," "Never Too Late" and "Sweet Charity." tive New Yorker. She graduated from New York She is survived by her husband, Edward. Visiting University in 1952 with a degree in journalism and will be Thursday and Friday, 2-5 and 7-9 p.m.

at the went to work as a public relations representative Campbell Funeral Chapel, 1076 Madison Ave. Serof the Mills Bros. Circus in Ohio. vices will be at the chapel, 7 p.m. Friday.

She then went to the Ringling Bros. and Bar- -Anthony Scaduto.