Stephen A. Zahurak, a retired Bethlehem Steel Corp. chemical engineer and a World War II veteran, died Thursday at his daughter's Sparks home of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 97.
The son of John Zahurak and Susannah Zahurak, Stephen A. Zahurak was born and raised in Lebanon, Pa., where he graduated from Lebanon High School.
Mr. Zahurak moved to Baltimore and took a job as a machinist at Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s Sparrows Point plant, where he worked until enlisting in the Navy in 1942.
He served in the Atlantic as a machinist's mate until being discharged in 1948. He enrolled at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1953 in chemical engineering.
He returned to Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore, where he worked until retiring in 1982.
Mr. Zahurak, a longtime resident of Fallston, was an inveterate golfer and played at Pine Ridge Golf Course.
His wife of 43 years, the former Leona Lahe, died in 2003.
He had been a communicant of St. John's Roman Catholic Church in Hydes.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, 8420 Belair Road, Fullerton.
Mr. Zahurak is survived by a son, John Zahurak of Eagle, Idaho; a daughter, Marianna Zahurak of Sparks; a brother, Leonard Zahurak of Wyomissing, Pa.; and three grandchildren.