Genealogy Data Page 164 (Notes Pages)

Roland Joseph Zarlengo (I13041) [Male] b. 23 Mar 1919 Denver, Denver, CO - d. 28 Dec 2007 Denver, Denver, CO

1930 Census, Denver, CO
1940 census, Denver, Denver, CO, 21y.
1945 Petition for Naturalization of father, Gioacchino, Denver, CO.

U.S. Public Records Index, Volume 1 about
Name: Dr Roland J Zarlengo
Birth Date: 23 Mar 1919
Address: 3225 W Scott Pl, Denver, CO, 80211-1347 (1993)

Social Security Death Index
Name: Roland J. Zarlengo
Last Residence: 80218 Denver, Denver, Colorado
Born: 23 Mar 1919
Died: 28 Dec 2007
State (Year) SSN issued: Colorado (Before 1951)

obituaries
Charitable Zarlengo was an "old-fashioned doctor"
By Virginia Culver
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 01/06/2008 12:15:05 AM MST

[The only activities that matched Roland Zarlengo's passion for medicine were dancing and playing the accordion. (Photo courtesy of the Zarlengo family )]

Roland Zarlengo, who served as the volunteer medical director at a home for the aged for 42 years, died Dec. 28 at age 88.

Zarlengo was the medical director for the Little Sisters of the Poor Mullen Home for the Aged in northwest Denver while also tending to a private primary-care practice.

The only activities that matched Zarlengo's passion for medicine were dancing and playing the accordion.

"He played the classics, including Bach and Mozart," said his daughter Barbara Zarlengo of Boulder.

Everyone in the family did something musical � piano, voice or another instrument.

Zarlengo and and his wife, Cecelia, danced every chance they got.

They danced at the Denver Athletic Club and the famed Trocadero Ballroom at Elitch Gardens, where they heard the big bands of Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey.

Zarlengo had learned to dance in his father's basement, which had been converted into a dance floor.

He also listened to opera, preferring Italian composers.

Zarlengo was "an old-fashioned doctor," said his niece, Dianne Zarlengo of Denver.

"He made house calls, would get up at 2 in the morning to go see a sick patient and never turned anyone away because they couldn't pay," she said.

While he worked long hours, his son, David Zarlengo of Golden, said his father would take a day off occasionally to fish, although he never ate fish himself.

Zarlengo was in private practice at Highland Medical Center for 26 years and then became regional medical director for Western Electric, traveling to seven area states.

He had served as president of the Colorado Academy of Family Practice, president of the Rocky Mountain Academy of Occupational Medicine and president of the Bal F. Swan Foundation, which gave money for education and health care.

Roland Joseph Zarlengo was born March 23, 1919, in Denver and graduated from Regis High School, where he excelled in drama, elocution, debate, scholastics and sports.

He earned his bachelor's degree at Regis University and his medical degree from Creighton University in Omaha.

He always wanted to be a doctor, though his three brothers all became lawyers. "He was fascinated by science," Barbara Zarlengo said.

While at Creighton, he met Cecelia Margrette Kaminski, a nursing-school student, and they married on Sept. 23, 1944. He told family members he fell in love with her when he spotted a young woman at a dance wearing a blue and white polka-dot dress, said his son, David.

Whether Cecelia Kaminski's reaction was so instant was unclear, but Roland Zarlengo "always claimed she fell for him just as fast," David Zarlengo said.

Cecelia Zarlengo died seven years ago.

In addition to his son and daughter, Roland Zarlengo is survived by four other daughters, Suzanne Zarlengo of Denver, Mary Bock-Zarlengo of Denver, Linda Z. DeBuno of Wheat Ridge and Patricia Zarlengo-Strouse of Denver; and three grandchildren.

Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com