* Dr. Stephen J. Bernocco; Hospital Administrator

Dr. Stephen Joseph Bernocco, a retired administrator at Northridge Hospital Medical Center and a San Fernando Valley doctor for 25 years, has died at his Northridge home. He was 59.

A longtime Valley resident, Bernocco died Sunday after a lengthy battle with lymphoma, a form of cancer, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Born in Asbury Park, N.J., Bernocco received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Villanova University. He attended Georgetown University School of Medicine, where he received his medical degree.

He completed his internship at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Charleston, S.C., and later served at the Navy’s medical facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Following his five years in the Navy, Bernocco moved to the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, where he completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology.

In 1967, he settled in the Valley with his family, joining the Granada Medical Group in Granada Hills, where he remained for 23 years.

Bernocco later joined the Northridge Hospital Medical Center’s board of trustees and served as the hospital’s chief of obstetrics and gynecology for four years before his retirement in 1990. That same year, the hospital opened a 19-suite maternity ward named in Bernocco’s honor.

“Sure, I live each day as if it were my last,” he told The Times in 1985. “But you can’t lay that on the cancer. I’ve always lived this way, ever since I can remember. There’s never been a day I haven’t been happy to roll out of bed, put my feet on the floor and get going. Well, not many, anyway. . .”

Bernocco is survived by his wife Georgia and sons Stephen and Gregory. A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. today at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 18405 Superior St., Northridge. J.T. Oswald Mortuary in Reseda is handling the arrangements. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Northridge Hospital Foundation, 18300 Roscoe Blvd., Northridge 91328.