Profile courtesy of THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE. A Model and a Firefighter She was standing on the Brooklyn Bridge when the first tower fell. Everyone around her was madly dialing cellphones with no success. Suddenly, her own phone started ringing. "It was my older brother," recalled Patricia Gambino, who had just escaped from the 72nd floor of the south tower. "He said: 'Thank God. You're all right, and Michael is on vacation.'" Little did either of them realize that at that precise moment their younger brother, Michael T. Weinberg, 34 — the stunningly handsome baby of the family, a part-time model who had played minor league baseball for the Detroit Tigers organization and was now a firefighter — had just arrived at the World Trade Center. As the first tower collapsed, he had taken cover under a fire truck. His was among the first bodies found. An avid golfer, His car was eventually found by the side of the highway, where he had apparently abandoned it to hitch a ride with an emergency rescue vehicle. "He loved to help people," his sister said. Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 5, 2001.

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