Calming
Instructions In the 22 months since his birth, Michael Quinn has
learned to enjoy many things, but moments with his grandfather
Matthew Ryan were highlights. The two played ball. They walked.
They collaborated in the gloriously messy business of washing
cars, outside the Ryan home in Seaford, N.Y. Mr. Ryan's wife,
Margaret, said Matthew "would take the hose, squirt it all around,
squirt the car, squirt Grandpa. Mostly he just got himself soaked."
Matthew Ryan, 54, loved all things Irish and all things family.
He also loved to listen to the disc jockey Vin Scelsa play classic
rock on the "Idiot's Delight" show on radio, and loved playing
or watching hockey. Matthew Ryan's 28-year career took him from
Engine Company 280 in Brooklyn, to Engine Company 43 in the Bronx,
where he was a lieutenant, back to to Engine Company 280 as captain
and then to Manhattan in September 2000 as a battalion chief.
In the heat of a fire, he would whisper calming instructions in
younger firefighters' ears, Mrs. Ryan said. "They always felt
more confident when Matty was on duty." On Saturday evenings,
many members of Engine 280 still listen to "Idiot's Delight."
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 31, 2001.
John M. Paolillo He Had an Unshakable Dedication February 4, 2002
The morning of Sept. 11 began as any other did at Special Operations
Command headquarters on Roosevelt Island. Battalion Chief's Aide
Steve Modica was making sure that the engines were well oiled,
the radio was audible and the equipment functioning properly.
When Battalion Chief John Paolillo asked him if he had any plans
for the day, Modica responded, "No." The two men were on the Grand
Central Parkway en route to a drill in Brooklyn when they received
the alarm for the fire at the World Trade Center. They arrived
on the scene a few minutes before the second plane hit Tower Two.
Paolillo and Modica stopped at a command post to receive orders
and "were told to help with whatever we could," Modica recalled.
The two were on the way up the stairs of Tower One, passing descending
emergency police officers and firefighters who had already received
evacuation orders, Modica said. Their ascension was halted by
the collapse of the second tower, Modica said. "We felt the building
shake," he said. Somewhere between the 30th and 40th floors, he
recalled, "A bunch of firemen ran by and shouted, 'Evacuate!'
Just the initial tremble of the building would have made anyone
want to get out of there." Modica made it out of the building
in time. But Paolillo, 51, of Glen Head, died in the terrorist
attacks. Born in Brooklyn in 1950, Paolillo graduated from St.
Steven's High School there in 1968. He moved out of his parents'
home there shortly after and began working at an advertising firm
in Manhattan, his brother, Joseph, said. The two brothers, who
shared a room until John Paolillo moved out, took frequent morning
jogs under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge while growing up, Joseph
Paolillo said. On one occasion, while on one of their daily runs,
the two brothers witnessed a car careening into a divider on the
Belt Parkway. "Before I knew it, John was gone," his brother said.
"He was prying open the car door, pulling the driver out, and
diverting traffic. He took control of the situation." The brothers
spent the Sunday before Sept. 11 together. Joseph Paolillo said
his brother's characteristically laconic hellos and goodbyes were
replaced with long-winded chatter. "It seemed like he was dragging
me on with small talk," he said. "It was like he didn't want to
let me go." Josephine Paolillo remembered her brother-in-law's
unshakable dedication to his family: his wife, Donna, and their
children, Jake, 10, and Ella, 8. "He could have come back from
taking his kids to soccer, after a 24-hour shift, and he would
still be the first one to volunteer to babysit for me," she said.
Paolillo joined the FDNY in 1977. Fearing the lack of job security
in the advertising industry, he sought advice from his father,
Martin, said Josephine Paolillo. A believer in gritty, sleepless
nights, Paolillo studied for four years for his lieutenant's test,
his brother said. The long hours without sleep paid off when Paolillo
received his test scores. "He missed two questions on that test,"
his brother said. Promoted to lieutenant in the mid-1980s, and
to captain shortly thereafter, Paolillo "rose through the ranks
of the fire department very quickly," his brother said. "Next
in line" for the rank of deputy chief, the upper echelon in the
FDNY, officials there decided to "promote him to that position
posthumously," his brother said. In his brother, Joseph Paolillo
saw a kind, giving soul who "always wanted to help people." --
Nick Iyer (Newsday)
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