Thomas A. Gardner was lost carrying out his duties as a Firefighter in the World Trade Center Sept. 11th disaster.

He graduated in 1995, with Honors, as a Biology Education major in the Queens College Divisions of Education and Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and the Science Teacher Careers Program. For 12 years, he served with Engine Co. 59 in Harlem, where he endured building collapses, burns and other firefighting injuries. He became a Haz-Mat Company 1 firefighter and FD instructor during his 17 years with the New York City Fire Department.

Tom had specialized training in a spectrum of toxic threats, including anthrax, and flew to many parts of the USA giving seminars for the IAFF (The International Association of Fire Fighters) to prepare law enforcement agencies to handle those dangers.

Upon his retirement from the New York City Fire Dept., Tom had planned a second career as a high school science teacher.

Tom saw beauty in nature and in all living things. He spent some of his days-off as a volunteer, teaching children at the Bronx Zoo. Earlier before being married, he nursed injured birds back to health as a member of Volunteers for Wildlife in Huntington.

When he was 21, he went to Africa and "came back a changed man." With his wife Liz, he explored the Rocky Mountains, the Adirondacks, the Grand Canyon, Hawaii, California, Bermuda, made many trips to their beloved Maine, and went whale watching off Cape Cod.

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