Firefighter
Durrell Pearsall
Rescue 4
Laid
to Rest
on November 8, 2001
Imposing
Yet Inviting
His name was Durrell V. Pearsall Jr., but everyone called him
Bronko. At 6 feet 2, 285 pounds, Firefighter Pearsall could
bench press 455 pounds as easily, said someone who witnessed
the feat, as if "it was nothing." "As soon as he walked into
a room, everyone noticed," said Liam Flaherty, a fellow firefighter
at Rescue Squad 4 in Queens. But while his facade was fierce,
Firefighter Flaherty said, his smile "could warm a room right
up." Firefighter Pearsall had played offensive tackle for C.
W. Post during college. He slimmed down to 230 pounds to take
the firefighter's test but put the weight back on after he joined
the department in 1993. He played tackle for the Fire Department's
football team. "Bronko had just unbelievable power and strength,"
said John Szczech, a firefighter who roomed with Firefighter
Pearsall in Hempstead, N.Y. He was fiercely proud of his Irish
heritage. He played snare drum in the department's Emerald Society
Pipes and Drums, and the band's logo was tattooed on his calf.
On his upper right arm — big as a billboard, some said — he
had tattoed his family crest, pierced with the legend Death
Before Shame in Gaelic. "And he certainly lived up to that,"
Firefighter Szczech said. Profile published in THE NEW YORK
TIMES on December 22, 2001.
USA
Points of Light
The
Sunday Mail