Leo J. Rooney, 73, of 1834 Arlington St., Bethlehem, formerly of Garden City and Essex Falls, N.J., died Wednesday, Aug. 14, in St. Luke’s Hospital. He was the husband of Virginia P. (Price) Rooney for 49 years last September.
He founded the Meredith Corp. — Pressure Vessel Nuclear Steels, Hillside, N.J., in 1983 and retired in 1989.
A 1952 graduate of Lehigh University, he worked for Bethlehem Steel Corp. from 1942 until retiring as assistant manager of the New York Sales Division in 1983. He started in the sales department at the home office after working in the plant’s fuel and combustion division. He was transferred to New York as a salesman in 1954 and became assistant manager of sales in New York in 1975.
Born in Bethlehem, he was a son of the late Fred B. and Veronica K. (McGreavy) Rooney.
He was a board member of the Bethlehem Boys and Girls Club for the past six years, a volunteer for the Boys and Girls Club of America, and a member of the Bethlehem Boys and Girls Club Fraternal Alumni Association and the National Alumni Association.
He was a member of Holy Infancy Catholic Church, Bethlehem.
He was an Army veteran of World War II, serving in the Pacific.
Survivors: Wife; sons, Fred P. of Bethlehem and State Rep. T.J. of Fountain Hill; daughters, Frances Maclay of Bethlehem Township and Virginia Burns of Old Greenwich, Conn.; brother, former U.S. Rep. Fred B. Rooney of Washington, D.C., and six grandchildren.
Mass: 9:30 a.m. Friday in the church. Call 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Connell Funeral Home, 245 E. Broad St., Bethlehem.
Contributions: Boys and Girls Club of Bethlehem.
