Artist to paint portrait of hero firefighter for his family

By BLAIR CRADDOCK THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: August 27, 2002)

WEST NYACK — The details that will memorialize Tom Foley in a portrait are an open smile, a lithe pose, his beloved cowboy hat, and the firefighter's Maltese cross with the emblem of the New York City Fire Department's Rescue Company 3.

"We have a lot of pictures, but this is something that will last forever," said Foley's sister, Joanne Gross, of the oil painting that will honor her brother.

Gross met yesterday with a portrait painter, Lisa Gleim, who will paint Foley's picture as a part of Portrait Project 9/11, a volunteer effort by artists to memorialize firefighters who died Sept. 11.

The two women met at Foley's parents' house, where photos of the firefighter were spread out on the dining room table.

"It's important to talk person-to-person," Gleim said. She flew from Atlanta on Friday to meet the Foley family, who learned of the portrait project through the Uniformed Firefighters' Association newsletter.

Meeting with relatives was the only way she could get an idea of what Foley was like, Gleim said. When she paints a living person, she can observe the person's gestures and behavior, speak to that person and take many photographs from which to work.

Foley's smile, in a family snapshot, was the first and most important thing Joanne Gross chose to memorialize.

"To me, that was him," Gross told Gleim, handing her a photo of herself with her two brothers, Tom and Dan.

Then there was Tom Foley's white cowboy hat. "He'd worn that hat forever," Gross said. "He'd wear that hat to everything."

The hat will represent Foley's rodeo bull-riding, his sister said. He rode bulls in a rodeo in the Bronx and in other events.

Foley's pose will come not from a family snapshot, but from a picture in his portfolio as a model and actor.

Foley gained a measure of fame for his looks as an accidental outgrowth of newspaper articles about a dramatic rescue in 1999 by Squad 41, which was Foley's unit at the time.

Foley went on a call to rescue two construction workers when a scaffold collapsed and left the men hanging 12 stories high. Foley climbed down a rope and attached harnesses to the men so they could be lowered by rope to the street.

Foley's picture in the newspapers caught the eye of editors at People magazine. He wound up in the magazine's annual issue on handsome bachelors.

He also posed for the FDNY calendar, which uses firefighters' pictures to raise funds for safety education programs. The calendar's release was delayed a year, but it is in stores now.

"He was very excited about that," said his mother, Pat Foley. He worked out for month to get in shape for the calendar. He also began auditioning for acting jobs and was an extra on "The Sopranos."

Gleim said the portfolio pose would work well with the cowboy hat. The smile she'll use, she said, will come from the family photo.

Foley's portrait will show him in a T-shirt with the emblem of Rescue 3, the elite unit he belonged to when he died at age 32. Gross brought the T-shirt to the living room so Gleim could sketch the emblem and Maltese cross.

"We'll do some sketches and let you decide," Gleim told Gross. When she produces a sketch Gross likes, Gleim said, she will use that sketch to paint an oil portrait to hang in Gross' home in Pine Bush. The process can take several months.

Margaret Herman, a coordinator of the Portrait Project 9/11, said yesterday that three portraits of firefighters had been completed to date.

Herman said more than 200 artists have volunteered to paint firefighters' portraits. If families request portraits in the coming months and years, the artists will be available, she said. Families will pay nothing for the professional portraits.

The portraits are for the families, but Cynthia Daniel, whose Web site, Stroke of Genius, helped organize volunteers, said she would like to create an online gallery of the portraits if families allowed it.

Herman said portrait artists tried to portray a person's character, to create a memorial for family members and future generations.

The smile, cowboy hat and Rescue 3 emblem will recall Tom Foley for his nieces and nephews, Gross said.

"It will be something," she said, "to pass down to my kids."

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