Battalion Chief John Paolillo
Battalion 11

Laid to Rest on
October 10, 2001

This page is dedicated to John Paolillo.
Brother, you are always in our hearts and our thoughts. You have been an inspiration to us and we will try to live up to the high standard that you have set.
You will never be forgotten.from the brothers and sisters of NYRRT-1

Answering a Daughter's Call

Richard Prunty's world revolved around two families. There was his family in Sayville, on Long Island, and there was the Second Battalion of the New York City Fire Department. Mr. Prunty, the battalion chief, would explain to his wife, Susan, that his life depended on his firefighters. They depended on him, too. When he received promotions, his firefighters did not want him to move on. "It truly was a brotherhood," she said. Mr. Prunty was heading into 1 World Trade Center with his firefighters, but his wife thinks he probably had tried to call them out because he was so conscious of their safety. At 57, he was a tall, unassuming man, never the type to dominate a conversation or even brag. But when he did have something to say, his soft-spoken words were usually the strongest and most effective that could be said. Despite his sometimes gruff exterior, his family knew he was a teddy bear. He was protective of his two children, Lisa, 25, and Christopher, 21. His daughter recalls her father's visit when she became so ill at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire that she couldn't finish classes during final exams. He stayed for one week, sleeping on the floor. "I almost didn't graduate and that put me through it," she said. Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 22, 2001. John M. Paolillo He Had an Unshakable Dedication February 4, 2002 The morning of Sept. 11 began as any other did at Special Operations Command headquarters on Roosevelt Island. Battalion Chief's Aide Steve Modica was making sure that the engines were well oiled, the radio was audible and the equipment functioning properly. When Battalion Chief John Paolillo asked him if he had any plans for the day, Modica responded, "No." The two men were on the Grand Central Parkway en route to a drill in Brooklyn when they received the alarm for the fire at the World Trade Center. They arrived on the scene a few minutes before the second plane hit Tower Two. Paolillo and Modica stopped at a command post to receive orders and "were told to help with whatever we could," Modica recalled. The two were on the way up the stairs of Tower One, passing descending emergency police officers and firefighters who had already received evacuation orders, Modica said. Their ascension was halted by the collapse of the second tower, Modica said. "We felt the building shake," he said. Somewhere between the 30th and 40th floors, he recalled, "A bunch of firemen ran by and shouted, 'Evacuate!' Just the initial tremble of the building would have made anyone want to get out of there." Modica made it out of the building in time. But Paolillo, 51, of Glen Head, died in the terrorist attacks. Born in Brooklyn in 1950, Paolillo graduated from St. Steven's High School there in 1968. He moved out of his parents' home there shortly after and began working at an advertising firm in Manhattan, his brother, Joseph, said. The two brothers, who shared a room until John Paolillo moved out, took frequent morning jogs under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge while growing up, Joseph Paolillo said. On one occasion, while on one of their daily runs, the two brothers witnessed a car careening into a divider on the Belt Parkway. "Before I knew it, John was gone," his brother said. "He was prying open the car door, pulling the driver out, and diverting traffic. He took control of the situation." The brothers spent the Sunday before Sept. 11 together. Joseph Paolillo said his brother's characteristically laconic hellos and goodbyes were replaced with long-winded chatter. "It seemed like he was dragging me on with small talk," he said. "It was like he didn't want to let me go." Josephine Paolillo remembered her brother-in-law's unshakable dedication to his family: his wife, Donna, and their children, Jake, 10, and Ella, 8. "He could have come back from taking his kids to soccer, after a 24-hour shift, and he would still be the first one to volunteer to babysit for me," she said. Paolillo joined the FDNY in 1977. Fearing the lack of job security in the advertising industry, he sought advice from his father, Martin, said Josephine Paolillo. A believer in gritty, sleepless nights, Paolillo studied for four years for his lieutenant's test, his brother said. The long hours without sleep paid off when Paolillo received his test scores. "He missed two questions on that test," his brother said. Promoted to lieutenant in the mid-1980s, and to captain shortly thereafter, Paolillo "rose through the ranks of the fire department very quickly," his brother said. "Next in line" for the rank of deputy chief, the upper echelon in the FDNY, officials there decided to "promote him to that position posthumously," his brother said. In his brother, Joseph Paolillo saw a kind, giving soul who "always wanted to help people." -- Nick Iyer (Newsday)

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