Luciano Zamboni, 76; Ex-UCLA Professor Ran Mendocino County Inn

Luciano Zamboni, a longtime chairman of the pathology department at UCLA-Harbor General Hospital who retired to devote himself to cooking and running a highly regarded bed and breakfast on the Mendocino Coast, has died.

He was 76.

Zamboni died May 23 in Santa Rosa as the result of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Zamboni worked at UCLA from 1963 until his retirement in 1991, first as an assistant professor and director of the electron microscope laboratory, then, starting in March 1973, as chairman of the pathology department.

He was an internationally recognized expert on male infertility and pioneered the use of the electron microscope in the development of human embryos and male spermatozoa.

He continued this work after his retirement, keeping an office in Los Angeles and seeing patients until his death.

In 1990, Zamboni and his wife, Pauline, purchased and began renovations on a Victorian ranch house on a 100-acre tract near the town of Manchester on the Mendocino Coast.

They opened Victorian Gardens as a bed and breakfast in 1995 and were featured in many publications, in large part because of Zamboni’s Italian cooking.

The couple often joked that the only reason they built the place was so Luciano could give dinner parties.

Victorian Gardens was usually booked up to a year in advance.

In addition to his wife of 37 years, Zamboni is survived by his two sons from a previous marriage, Luca Zamboni and Francesco Paolo Zamboni.

There will be no formal memorial service, but contributions can be sent to the Point Arena Lighthouse Keepers, P.O. Box 11, Point Arena, CA 95468.