Charles Zaloom Dies At 87

Charles B. Zaloom

Charles B. Zaloom Jr. of Westhampton Beach and Osprey, Florida, died at his Westhampton Beach home on August 1. He was 87.

A member of “the Greatest Generation,” Mr. Zaloom was born July 18, 1924, in the little “hospital” on Main Street to parents Charles and Elsie Zaloom, proprietors of the Orient Shop, which was located in the building to the east of what now houses Simon’s Beach Bakery. He attended Westhampton Beach High School, graduating in 1942, and played football for Coach Hansen and also ran track.

After graduation during World War II, at 17 years old, he joined the war effort as a foundryman casting airplane cylinders in the Curtiss-Wright engine plant in Patterson, New Jersey. After turning 18, he volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps and flew combat and POW relief missions over Japan as crew chief/gunner of a B-29 bomber in the 73rd Wing, 497th Group, 871st Squadron of the 20th Air Force. “He had terrible war stories,” his son said. “There was a 50 percent casualty rate in his unit.”

After the war, making use of the GI Bill, Mr. Zaloom graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Science and shipped off to Saudi Arabia to work the early years of oil exploration with the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO). Tiring of the expatriate life, he returned to Manhattan, meeting Sophie Stachnik from Westhampton on the weekend train home. They wed in 1955 at the Church of Immaculate Conception on Quiogue.

Mr. Zaloom became a bank examiner with the Federal Reserve and earned a master’s in business administration from New York University, auditing banks throughout the state. In 1958, he became executive vice president of the Hampton Bays National Bank (now Chase).

“He understood people very well,” said his son, Charles. “He was like a judge with that intuitive scale of his.”

Studying failures in the commercial loan process, he pioneered the concept and process of loan review now in use by the commercial banking industry, establishing that department at Franklin National Bank, Long Island Trust and the Bank of New York.

“He had a load of responsibilities and he carried it off effortlessly,” Mr. Zaloom said. “He was very intelligent and knew how to keep things working in order to avoid problems. His integrity was terrific. He really was a part of that Greatest Generation. When he had a duty, he’d do it.”

Mr. Zaloom enjoyed golfing as a member of the Southampton Golf Club and boating each weekend, particularly fishing, clamming and crabbing Moriches Bay with his family.

Mr. Zaloom is survived by his wife, Sophie; children, Susan of Riverhead and Charles of Mattituck; and grandchildren, Charles IV, Kathryn, Josephine and Anna. He was predeceased by a sister, Marion Raynor; and a brother, Donald.

Visitation will be held on Thursday, August 4, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. A memorial service will be held a the Church of the Immaculate Conception on Quiogue on Friday, August 5, at 10 a.m. Interment will follow at Westhampton Cemetery.

Memorial donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association at alz.org.