FORMER U.S. REP. DEROUNIAN DIES AT 89
The Associated Press
Kentucky.com, KY
April 24 2007
NEW YORK –Steven B. Derounian, a former judge who represented Nassau
County in Congress in the 1950s and 1960s, has died. He was 89.
Derounian died in Austin, Texas, on April 17 after suffering
complications from pneumonia, his nephew, Paul D. Derounian of New
York, said Tuesday.
Derounian, a Republican, won a seat on the U.S. House of
Representatives in 1952. He served for six terms and earned national
recognition while a member of a 1950s subcommittee that investigated
scandals in quiz shows and payola on the airwaves.
In 1968, he won a seat on the state Supreme Court on Long Island. He
retired from the bench in 1981 and moved from Garden City to Texas,
his wife’s home state.
He was born Steven Boghos Derounian in Sofia, Bulgaria, to Armenian
parents who later settled on Long Island, in Mineola.
Derounian graduated from New York University and Fordham Law School,
and went on to serve in an infantry division in Europe. He was
discharged as a captain in 1946, having earned a Purple Heart and a
Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster.
Survivors include Derounian’s wife of 60 years, Emily Ann Kennard
Derounian; two daughters, Ann Banks of Lexington, Ky., and Eleanor
Derounian of Austin; and a granddaughter.