Firefighter
Donald Regan
Rescue 3
Memorial Service was held
on October 8th,
2001
Newsday
Article
62 Days from Ground Zero
The American Legion Magazine
The
post office people in Pine Bush, N.Y., knew Donald Regan well. Every
Saturday,
he mailed parcels to the two of his four children who did not live
nearby. He took requests: an old pair of baseball cleats; the spaghetti sauce
he and his wife made and canned; money. Sometimes just a letter. He had always
kept close tabs on his family. "If there were four sporting events at one
time, he would be there for an inning of each game," said his son Shane.
Donald Regan was a firefighter from Rescue Company 3, a 17-year veteran who
knew every tool and was considered fearless by his squad mates. His sleep
was so deep that he had to fall asleep in the firehouse kitchen so the alarm
would wake him, and he was famous for drifting off in the most contorted
positions. "He was the consummate blue-collar person," Shane Regan said. "He
worked until he couldn't work any more. He made sure everybody else was taken
care of." For his drive to work, his son added, he would buy clunkers with
at least 100,000 miles. "My dad was famous for having nasty cars. He called
them classics." But with his brood out of the house, he had bought himself
a 2001 Chrysler Sebring, and he washed it as if that were his paying job. "He
finally broke down and said, `Now I'm going to do something for myself.' " (Legacy.com
Article)