: : : : 12/28/05 Donald La Pasta, '36
Chairman, CEO
Reliance Federal Savings Bank
(1917-2001)
"Took hit just behind bombardier (me) and a small piece of flak hit me in the leg and went thru suit and just cut my leg at the knee joint. Felt like a hot iron being put on my leg...then one broke above [the aircraft] nose and put six holes in windshield and flak hit co-pilot in the shoulder, tore his suit but didn't break the skin."
If this sounds like an excerpt from a war diary, it's because it is. It was typed by his wife years later from notes Donald La Pasta made during one of World War II's most well-known Allied bombing raids. La Pasta was a lieutenant in the Army Air Forces, a bombardier and navigator aboard a B-24 on a mission from a base in Italy to destroy vital Axis oil fields in Ploesti, Romania. He would survive 51 combat missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
The horrors of war behind him, La Pasta returned home to Queens and eventually settled on Long Island and went on to become a successful banker. He was former chairman and chief executive of Reliance Federal Savings Bank.
La Pasta died at his Huntington home on Aug. 28 from congestive heart failure. He was 85. Born and raised in Queens, La Pasta graduated from Jamaica High School in 1936. He graduated in 1940 from what was then known as Hofstra College. In 1954, he earned a law degree from New York Law School. Early in his career he worked in the marine insurance field and eventually moved into banking.
In 1955, he joined Reliance Federal Savings Bank in Queens Village and later was transferred to its Garden City site. He was named president in 1958 and then chairman and chief executive when the bank merged with Queens County Federal Savings Bank in 1967. He retired in 1983, continuing to serve on its board of directors until Reliance merged with North Fork Bank in 2000.
As a banker and community activist, La Pasta was a member of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, several Jamaica urban renewal programs and he served on a committee to establish the Eastern Queens YMCA. He also belonged to the Queens Village Lions Club.
: : : : 12/28/05