Captain Timothy Stackpole
Division 11

Laid to Rest
on September 24, 2001

"The greatest high you can get in life is by helping somebody."

~TIMOTHY STACKPOLE~

Timothy M. Stackpole September 11, 2001 Perhaps the best-known firefighter who didn't have to be in the World Trade Center was Capt. Timothy Stackpole of Brooklyn. He was fighting a fire in a city-owned building in 1998 when the floor collapsed, dropping him and two firemen 10 feet into a roaring blaze. The flames burned more than 30 percent of his body. The city agreed to pay the three $4.2 million after their lawyers argued that the city hadn't heeded warnings about the building's structural flaws. Court records don't specify the individual payments, but it was clear Stackpole could have retired with a large nest egg and a lucrative disability pension. Instead, after two months in a hospital, he spent many painful hours in the gym rebuilding his body and went back to work as soon as he could pass a physical. "He came back when someone else would have retired happily," Msgr. Thomas Brady, a former fire department chaplain, said. At his church, Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church in Marine Park, Brooklyn, Stackpole taught children and counseled couples about to marry. "He was a very religious man in the best sense," Brady said.-- Brian Donovan (Newsday)

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