A48
OBITUARIES
LONG ISLAND
Lenny Cocco, sang doo-wop with The Chimes
BY FRANK LOVECE
Special to Newsday
Singer Lenny Cocco, who in
a nearly 60-year career became
a doo-wop mainstay through-
out the metropolitan area, died
May 8 at his home in Holbrook,
of undisclosed causes. He was
78.
He was a small man in stature
but a man with a very big heart,
said his son, Leonard Cocco Jr., a
retired New York City police of-
ficer. Whenever anybody called
him for any charitable event, he
would give of his own free time
and will. Years ago when we had
the Oklahoma City bombing, he
had his own music production
company back then, and did a
fundraiser show and went to
Oklahoma and presented Gov.
Keating with a check.
Born in Brooklyn, Leonard
Cocco Sr. formed the group The
Capris in 1957, renaming the quin-
tet The Chimes after learning of a
Rockaway Beach band with the
former name. In 1961, The Chimes
reached No. 11 on the Billboard
Hot 100 chart with the Tommy
Dorsey hit Once in a While, fol-
lowed that year with the standard
WORLD
Alexandre Lamfalussy, 86, father of the euro
BY JAMES G. NEUGER
Bloomberg News
Alexandre Lamfalussy, a Hun-
garian refugee from commu-
nism who emigrated to Belgium
with a few dollars in his pocket
and went on to become a found-
ing father of the euro, has died.
He was 86.
Lamfalussy died Saturday, ac-
cording to Belga, the Belgian na-
tional newswire, which cited his
newsday.com
family. No cause was given. The
European Central Bank acknowl-
edged the death in a statement.
Lamfalussy was the first pres-
ident of the European Mone-
tary Institute, a short-lived in-
NEWSDAY, FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015
stitution created in 1994 with
the sole purpose of setting up
the ECB and then willing itself
out of existence.
He foresaw the essential
need for financial integration
in Europe to go hand in hand
with monetary integration and
actively drove this process for-
ward, the ECB said.
First an academic economist,
then private banker and finally
NEWSDAY / JIM PEPPLER
Cocco, above, in 2007, and at
right, middle, in 1959 with The
Chimes. In 1961 the group had
a hit with Once in a While.
Im in the Mood for Love, which
peaked at No 38. The group per-
formed in venues including The
Howard in Washington, D.C., the
Regal in Chicago and the Apollo
in Harlem, and by 1962 was re-
cording as Lenny & The Chimes. on Vee Jay in 1964, but the group, When not leading The Chimes, West Islip for 15 years until retir-
Other singles followed as the anchored by Cocco, formed Cocco, whose friends included ing in January 2013.
group changed record labels again in the early 1970s and be- radio personality Cousin Brucie In addition to his son of East
from Tag to Metro to Laurie, and came an ongoing local doo-wop Morrow and others in the local Islip, Cocco is survived by his
became a quartet after bass sing- presence. Lenny & The Chimes music industry, drove a truck for wife Jennie of Holbrook; daugh-
er Pat McGuire was killed by a continued with various person- a sausage company, worked at a ters, Maria Cocco-Modica of
drunken driver in 1963. Lenny & nel until their final show March printing press in Lindenhurst, Islip Terrace and Andrea Cocco-
The Chimes disbanded after re- 21 as part of an oldies concert at and did security for Good Samari- Collins of Holbrook; nine grand-
leasing the single Two Times the NYCB Theatre at Westbury. tan Hospital Medical Center in children; and a great-grandchild.
NATION
William Bast,
TV writer, 84
worlds central banks. He was fled his homeland in 1949 as the
promoted to BIS general manag- Iron Curtain was sealing off LOS ANGELES Will-
er in 1985 and, three years later, Eastern Europe. iam Bast, a TV writer who
joined a committee of central He sneaked across the co-created the 1980s Dynas-
bankers who sketched a road snowy border to Austria, en ty spinoff The Colbys
map for the European currency. route to a Belgian university during a four-decade career,
They included a future presi- scholarship. He studied econom- has died. He was 84.
AP / BERND KAMMERER
dent of the ECB, Wim Duisen- ics at Catholic University of Leu- His friend, Niki Marvin,
berg, and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, ven and obtained his doctorate told the Los Angeles Times
who later became Italian prime from Oxford University in 1957, that Bast died on May 4 at a
minister and president. the same year that six western Los Angeles care facility
Turning the road map into real- European countries signed the from Alzheimers disease.
ity became his job when the EMI Treaty of Rome, the nucleus of Bast wrote for numerous
Lamfalussy attends a news was established in Frankfurt, todays European Union. TV shows and received an
conference in Frankfurt in 1997. home of the German Bundes- Monetary expertise led to the Emmy nomination for his
bank, then Europes dominant in- post of economic adviser at 1977 adaptation of The Man
a central banker, Lamfalussy de- terest-rate-setting institution. Banque de Bruxelles, a private in the Iron Mask. He also
fended the euro as a risk worth The Bundesbank loomed so bank. Lamfalussy became chair- wrote the movies The
taking after the sovereign-debt large over Europes economy man of the banks executive Betsy and The Valley of
crisis that came close to shatter- that Lamfalussy had to crawl out board in 1971, stepping down Gwangi.
ing the currency. from under its shadow. After the after losses on unhedged foreign- Bast also was known for
The European Union EMIs first meeting in January exchange trades threatened the his close relationship to
couldnt exist without mone- 1994, he told reporters: I shall banks survival. actor James Dean.
tary union, he said in memoirs not accept a greater influence His biography of Dean
published in 2013. from the Bundesbank than if I was published in 1956, a year
Lamfalussys role in forging a had been sitting on the top of a LEGACY after the actor died in a car
path to monetary union began in mountain somewhere else. In crash.
1976 when he embarked on a ca- practice, the Bundesbank held Read recent obituaries, He wrote and coproduced
reer at the Bank for International sway in the setting-up of the ECB. in memoriams. a 1976 Dean biopic and wrote
Settlements, the Basel, Switzer- Born on April 26, 1929, in newsday.com/obituaries a second book, Surviving
land-based clearinghouse for the Kapuvar, Hungary, Lamfalussy James Dean, in 2006. AP