Robert Curatolo
As I get older, I become more and more fond of my hometown. Isn't that how it is for everyone? When you're 21, you're dying to escape. When you're 40, you long for the simplicity of childhood. You miss the people you knew who, as time passes, seem more and more like family.
The Curatolos are a typical Staten Island family: Italian Dad, Irish mom, eight kids. Mr. Curatolo coached the basketball team at my all girls' Catholic high school and took us to the state championships a handful of times. I was the team manager and book keeper. He was the best boss I ever had. His youngest son, Robert, was a year older than me. Before he became a firefighter, he worked in the mail room of the Staten Island Advance, where I started my journalism career. I worked "in front" and he worked "in back." We laughed about that when I passed him in the halls. I will always remember him wearing a smile, an inky apron, and ear plugs to block out the deafening sounds of the printing presses.
Rob became a firefighter shortly after I left my hometown newspaper to work at the New York Post. He also married one of my best high school friends, a player on one of his father's best basketball teams. They were married on August 16, 2001. He was dead on September 11. From his obit:
After his shift ended, the 31-year-old from Ladder 16 in Manhattan arrived at the wreckage of the World Trade Center to continue doing what he was trained to do — save lives. But sometime after the second tower collapsed, the firefighter lost his own.
His body was found yesterday under a rig between the two towers in an area near where his brothers, Billy and John, both firefighters, and Anthony, a police officer, had been searching since Tuesday.
"They were trying to figure out where he was and they were determined not to come home until they knew something," said Kathy Curatolo, who said the family is having a difficult time dealing with the numbing loss of their baby brother, the youngest of eight children.
I think about Rob, his widow, and his family hundreds of times a year, not just today.
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Comments :
Aug '10
Re: Robert Curatolo
At what point does silence become assent? After Nuremberg, the civilized world agreed that passive compliance with evil is a form of collaboration; and without a demonstration of some sort of individual resistance, no one can claim innocence.
The Danes, for example, acted masterfully against the Nazis by passive reluctance, and work slow-downs.
The Muslim world has had nine years to ponder the path of civilization and the path to barbarism, and I'd say they're running out of time to distinguish themselves from the collaborators and minions of profound madness.
Jun '10
Re: Robert Curatolo
Thank God for the people (like Robert Curatolo) who still believe there are worse things than dying yourself, and that's allowing other human beings to suffer without getting all the help that's possible to give. May we never forget them.
May '10
Re: Robert Curatolo
God bless them. I sometimes forget about the families that heroes leave behind.
May '10
Re: Robert Curatolo
Thanks for this post Ursula. I pray for all those innocents affected by that day. Your posting above about your friend has given me more than a little pause for thought. Robert Curatolo courageously gave his life to save others; those that remain must somehow find the courage to go on with this life too.
Eternal rest, grant unto them, O Lord,: and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May '10
Re: Robert Curatolo
Beautiful tribute, Ursula.
Aug '10
Re: Robert Curatolo
I'm sorry, Ursula. Your loving tribute to a genuine hero deserves recognition first, and I failed to give it. Ran ahead of myself.
May '10
Re: Robert Curatolo
On Sept. 11, that awful day, after confirming that our daughter was OK despite all the air defense gun vehicles parked on street corners in Washington, I took a call from a friend, Peter Tselepis. He frantically told me to pray like crazy for his little brother Billy, who worked on the WTC top floor for Cantor-Fitzgerald.
Sadly, our prayers were answered the "wrong way", and his son and pregnant widow were left without him.
Never forget.
Jul '10
Re: Robert Curatolo
There is nothing more profound than a good man steadfastly performing his duty in the face of unimaginable horror. God bless Mr. Curatolo and all the other first responders.