Louis L. Zagarino, 73, Buffalonian who became civic leader in the Baltimore area

Dec. 21, 1949 – Sept. 7, 2023

Louis L. Zagarino, a Buffalo native who was widely admired as a businessman and philanthropist in the Baltimore area, died Sept. 7 in a hospital in Annapolis, Md. He was 73.

Mr. Zagarino owned and operated the Rose Restaurant near Baltimore/Washington International Airport for more than 25 years, along with two popular hotels.

One of three children, he grew up on Olympic Avenue in Buffalo’s Kensington-Bailey neighborhood and was president of his eighth-grade class at School 78.

At Kensington High School, where he graduated in 1967, he was president of his freshman, sophomore and junior classes and was president of the Student Council as a senior. He also was vice president of the citywide Inter-High Student Council and ran relays on the track team.

He was chosen to attend the American Legion’s Boys State and in 1967 was a winner in the annual Youth Leadership Contest sponsored by Elks Lodge 23.

He attended what was then Erie County Technical Institute, received Statler Foundation food service scholarships, then went on to one of the nation’s top hospitality programs at Michigan State University’s School of Hotel Administration. After he graduated in 1971, he took advanced courses at the University of Michigan and Cornell University.

He served in the Navy and Naval Reserve and moved to Maryland at the suggestion of a college classmate whose family owned a restaurant. Soon he was managing a hotel on the grounds of Friendship Airport, which became BWI. 

A pioneer in the BWI Business District and a leader in its development, he bought the Rose Restaurant near the airport in North Linthicum in 1980. He built a Comfort Inn on the property in 1987 – only the third hotel in the vicinity at the time – and later added a Sleep Inn. Both hotels were award-winners.

During the Iraq War, Mr. Zagarino worked with the USO to welcome soldiers who came through BWI for family visits. He arranged for his hotel…