
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 28, 1993                   TAG: 9306280133
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

DANIEL J. ROOKER, FORMER NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER, DIES

Daniel J. Rooker, a onetime publisher and owner of New River Valley Newspapers died Saturday at age 74. He was living in Charlottesville but spent a good part of his career in the Pulaski area where his wife, Bethany L. Rooker, still lives.

Rooker was editor of the Radford News Journal in the 1950s and editor and publisher of the Southwest Times in Pulaski from 1956 to 1971, when he became publisher of the Charlottesville Daily Progress and vice president of Worrell Newspapers Inc.

Rooker returned to the New River area in 1976 and formed New River Valley Newspapers, purchasing the papers he once worked for from Worrell. He sold them back to Worrell Newspapers in 1980 and retired in 1982.

His community work included service with the Radford and Pulaski County chambers of commerce. He headed a committee that helped get a community college in the New River area and served as a member of the New River Community College Foundation. The college named an academic building, Rooker Hall, in his honor in 1988.

In addition to Rooker's wife, survivors include a daughter, Dee Rooker Lawton of Kingsport, Tenn.; sons, D. Gregory Rooker of Radford and Dennis S. Rooker of Charlottesville; and sisters, Melba Newcombe of El Paso, Texas, and Jeanne Jenks of Lansing, Mich.

The family will receive friends at Stevens Funeral Home in Pulaski from 7-9 p.m. today, and a memorial service will be held Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Christ Episcopal Church in Pulaski. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials be made to the Daniel J. Rooker Memorial Journalism Scholarship Fund at New River Community College, P.O. Box 1127, Dublin 24084.

by CNB