Langhorne

Chuck Herak of Wilmington won the Delaware Valley men's tennis championship by defeating Mark Groetsch, the defending champion from Langhorne, 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 6-2, yesterday at the Delaware Valley Tennis Club in Huntingdon Valley. Herak prevailed on the fifth match point of a contest that lasted 3 1/2 hours. Groetsch was the top seed, and Herak was seeded second. Ray Walker of Wilmington won the Logan 60-and-over tennis championship by defeating David Steiker, the defending champion from the host club, 6-4, 6-3, at the Logan Tennis Club in Melrose Park, Pa. The 45-and-over championship will be decided tomorrow at 5 p.m. in a final between Richie Cornwall of Langhorne and Dan Coyle of Horsham.

First, Woods School students made their way from Langhorne to Pacer Systems Inc. in Horsham. Then the field trip Monday took off. Pacer Systems showed the group its flight simulator, which is used to train airline pilots. The $3 million unit, built by the firm, took more than two years to be completed. Such flying conditions as cloud cover and engine failure can be mimicked by the simulator, adding to the students' ride.

Disco fever is back and the Village People, above, are singing their old hits once again to sold-out crowds. Dancers of all ages, below, enjoyed the group's performance at the reopening of Fizz Nightclub last weekend. Located in the Sheraton Bucks County Hotel in Langhorne, the club has been redesigned with new video, sound and lighting systems, and features disco, postmodern, under-21 and live music nights.

Lillian Jensen Vallette, 78, of Langhorne and formerly of Huntingdon Valley, who had volunteered at a cancer center for nearly two decades, died Saturday at the St. Mary Medical Center in Middletown Township. Mrs. Vallette was born in Philadelphia and grew up in New Jersey. She lived in Huntingdon Valley from 1956 until 1990. when she moved to the Attleboro Retirement Village in Langhorne. She was a volunteer at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia for more than 18 years, until 1988.

Marion Robinson Murphy, 77, a retired nursery-school teacher and former resident of Langhorne and Penns Park, died Sept. 29 at Central Park Lodge Nursing Home in Pinellas Park, Fla. Mrs. Murphy was born and educated in Philadelphia. For 30 years, she resided in Langhorne, where she served as a den mother for Pack 19 of the Cub Scouts and a Sunday-school teacher at St. James Episcopal Church, of which she was a member. She had been employed as a housemother at the Woods School in Langhorne and as a nursery-school teacher at Emilie Methodist Day School for several years before retiring at 62. She and her husband then lived in Penns Park, where they helped organize the Episcopal Church of the Holy Nativity.

Joseph P. McCafferty, 79, formerly of Newtown, retired cofounder of a well-known auto dealership, died Monday at the Hospice Family Care Center in Mesa, Ariz., after an illness. McCafferty Ford, on Business Route 1 at Woodbourne Road in Middletown Township, Bucks County, was cofounded in 1955 by Mr. McCafferty, his brother Charles and Joseph Foster as McCafferty Ford of Langhorne and Trenton. For a time, Charles McCafferty said, the brothers went separate ways; Joseph McCafferty operated the dealership in Trenton and Charles McCafferty hired Gary Buch to help run the Langhorne dealership.

Penndel Police Chief Stephen Burke told the Langhorne Borough Council Wednesday night that his tiny force could effectively patrol Langhorne. "Just because we're small doesn't mean we can't do the job," Burke said of his eight-member force. "I assure you we can. " Penndel, which has a population of about 2,700, is negotiating to patrol its near neighbor Langhorne, which has a population of about 1,000 and now gets its police coverage from Middletown. "Penndel Borough is essentially a patrol force," Burke said.

Dr. Ian Joel Berman, 47, a specialist in hematology and oncology, died yesterday at his home in Moorestown. Dr. Berman was chairman of the department of internal medicine at Delaware Valley Medical Center in Langhorne. In 1974, he founded Regional Internal Medical Associates in Langhorne. He was attending physician and a consultant in hematology and oncology at Saint Mary Hospital in Langhorne and Frankford Hospital in Philadelphia. He was an assistant professor of medicine at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and Hahnemann University in Philadelphia.

John McGrath of Langhorne collected another title yesterday at the Idle Hour Tennis Club when he won the Eastern States 75-and-over clay-court championship by 6-2, 6-1 over Fritz Klein of Merion Cricket Club. DELAWARE VALLEY CLAY COURT Al Colfer of the La Salle University team advanced to the semifinals of the Delaware Valley men's clay court tennis championship by defeating Rick Berry, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, at the Delaware Valley Tennis Club.

Eric Macdonald, 69, of Croydon in Bucks County, the retired owner and operator of an auto body and towing service, died Friday at Frankford Hospital-Bucks Campus in Falls Township. He owned and operated Rick's Auto Body & Towing in Penndel from 1955 to 1968 and then in Langhorne from 1968; he retired last year. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Towing Association and the Towing Association of America. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Macdonald was a resident of the Langhorne area for the last 28 years.