Battalion Chief Richard Prunty
Battalion 2

Laid to Rest
on September 20, 2001

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.
cont'd Legacy.com Article

 

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