Robert
Cordice, 28, firefighter 'was always on the move' Fitness buff transferred to
Squad 1 only 2 weeks before the attack Date of Death 9/11/2001
By Carolyn
Rushefsky
Advance staff writer
Wednesday, 11/07/2001
Firefighter
Robert J. Cordice always loved action.
That's what motivated the 28-year-old
New Springville resident to transfer from Engine Co. 152 in Rosebank to Squad
1 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, exactly two weeks before the Sept. 11 World Trade Center
disaster.
"It's no surprise that he was in the building when it collapsed,"
said his friend and neighbor, Firefighter John Deliso. "He was the type of
guy who wasn't worried about himself. He was just worried about getting everyone
else out." Mr. Cordice would have been 29 on Oct. 17.
Mr. Deliso
described Mr. Cordice as his closest friend. "He would do anything for you.
Not only for me, but for all his friends."
"All his friends
loved him very much," said his mother, Caroline Calicchio Cordice. "He
was a very funny, very positive, very honest and loving son." Born in Brooklyn,
he was brought as a child to Shore Acres, and moved to New Springville in 1988.
Mr. Cordice entered the Police Academy in 1993, and graduated in 1994.
He was a police officer with the 13th Precinct, Manhattan, until Oct. 19, 1997.
He then joined the Fire Department. Prior to his time at Engine 152 and
Squad 1, he served one-year rotations at Ladder Co. 102, Brooklyn, and Engine
Co. 1, Manhattan.
"He was always saying, 'I want to go on -- to move
up.' He was a pretty aggressive kid," Mrs. Cordice said.
"He
was always on the move; always ready for whatever was to come to him," said
his girl friend, Christina DePetro of Huguenot. "He was handsome, charming.
The day I met him I knew he was going to be the man in my life for the rest of
my life."
Firefighter Richard Zerilli of New Brighton, who went through
the Fire Academy with Mr. Cordice and later served with him at Engine 152, said
of his friend and colleague, "I remember Rob as always having a smile on
his face. He was a very outgoing person, who liked to laugh, liked to have fun."
Off-duty, he had worked as a bartender for the past year and a half at
the East Shore Inn, South Beach.
Mr. Cordice worked out extensively at
the gym, building his muscles to the point where he made the 2002 Fire Department
calendar.
"He was sitting on the famous Wall Street Bull, in his
bunker pants and suspenders, no shirt," Mr. Deliso said.
Mr. Cordice
also enjoyed riding his motorcycle, a Suzuki GSXR 750. He was a graduate of St.
Peter's Boys High School.
He played in the East Shore Little League, and
was a member of the league's 1985 championship team.
In addition to his
mother, Caroline, and his girl friend, Christina, surviving are his aunt, Jo Ann
Amelio, and his uncle, Alphonse Calicchio.
A memorial mass will be held
Friday at 10 a.m. in Our Lady of Holy Angels R.C. Church, Little Falls, N.J. The
Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home, Tottenville, is handling the arrangements.
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