Nicholas Anthony Seltzer, a fourth-grader who played golf and cooked Italian dishes, died Sunday of a brain tumor at his Bel Air home. He was 9.

He was well-known in Baltimore's Little Italy neighborhood, where he visited his grandparents' Eastern Avenue home and regularly played boccie, and where a boccie tournament was held in his honor last summer.

"He was like a surrogate grandson to the older ladies in Little Italy," said his grandmother, Nancy Geppi Azzaro. "He knew the restaurants, he knew the priest, he was all over the place."

"He liked to make the white sauces," said Amedeo Ebrahimpour, a Little Italy chef who conducted Saturday cooking classes that Nicholas attended. "He was very responsive, and he listened to everything I said. And he remembered everything."

Born in Baltimore, Nicholas grew up in Bel Air and was a pupil at Hickory Elementary School.

He liked to play golf on courses in Harford County and near Ocean City. He was a member of the Sons of Italy and an honorary member of the Baltimore Police Department's Southeastern District.

"He was much happier than anyone with a brain tumor had a right to be," said his physician, Dr. David Loeb.

A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Leo Roman Catholic Church, Stiles and Exeter streets.

In addition to his grandmother, he is survived by his parents, Maria and Scott Seltzer of Bel Air; and his grandfather, Anthony Azzaro of Baltimore.

Pub Date: 6/22/99