WINDHAM, N.H. (AP) _ Kasmir Ulaky, owner of Canobie Lake Park amusement center in Salem, has died at age 83.

He died on Feb. 14 Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, Mass., a family member said.

Ulaky, a native of Staten Island born to Hungarian parents, started his career as a commercial artist.

He married Rita Mazzocchi in 1946 and they worked as concessionaires at her parents' penny arcade in South Beach on Staten Island, and later owned and operated rides at Dietch's Kiddie Zoo in Fair Lawn, N.J.

In 1958, he bought Canobie Lake Park with two partners and turned it into a New England amusement landmark.

A World War II veteran of the Army Air Corps, Ulaky was a B-24 bomber pilot, was shot down over Yugoslavia and smuggled to Allied territory by partisans. He was awarded the Air Medal and Purple Heart.