In Memory of Kevin M. McCarthy and All Who Were Lost on September 11, 2001
KEVIN M. McCARTHY
Kevin M. McCarthy
World Trade Center
AN UNABASHED CONFIDENCE
First think of him and Cape Cod. For Kevin M. McCarthy, the man with the catching smile who never encountered a conversational pause he couldn't fill, the salty air, sand dunes and lapping waves of Cape Cod constituted paradise. He found serenity there as a boy, and it was where he took his own family for vacations. Then think of his facility with his hands and his knack for MacGyver-like solutions. "You gave him a string and he could create a universe," said his wife, Debra.
Then consider his unabashed confidence in himself. Risks didn't register. The proof was 98 stitches. Like the hockey stitches. The stitches from his service days when the antenna of an Army tank sliced off his eyebrow. And the box spring stitches. Unable to maneuver a box spring up three flights of stairs, he cut it in half, meanwhile sawing the inside of his hand. That was 23 stitches.
Mr. McCarthy, 42, who lived in Fairfield, Conn., with his wife and three children, Chelsea, 12, and Andrew and Stephanie, 5, was also the master of reinvention. He ran a personal service business, then became a stay-at-home father when the twins were born, and then emerged as a bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald. On the night of Sept. 10, just before they went to sleep, he told his wife, "This is just too good to be true."
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 31, 2001.
Kevin M., age 42, of Fairfield, CT. is one of the missing victims of the attack of the World Trade Center Twin Towers. He was a Bond Broker For Cantor Fitzgerald. Born in Chelsea and raised in Reading, MA. he was the son of Charles and Marie (Fantasia) McCarthy of Orleans, MA. He was a graduate of Reading High School and attended college in Boston.
He belonged to the National Guard for a number of years. In addition to his parents, he leaves his beloved wife, Debra Menich McCarthy; three children; Chelsea 11, and twins Andrew and Stephanie, 5, of Fairfield, CT. He is also survived by four sisters; Kathleen Sullivan and her husband, Richard of Concord, MA; Karen Toomey and her husband, Kevin, of Wellesley, MA; Maureen Baumgartel and her husband, Scott, of Sudbury, MA; Mary Ellen Rice and her husband, Tim, of Westport, CT; one brother, Charles Jr. and his wife, Deborah, of Back Bay Boston; and 9 nieces and nephews.
A Celebration of Life will be conducted Wednesday, October 3, 2001 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Bernard's Church, Monument Square, Concord, MA. A Memorial Fund has been established, McCarthy Family Fund, c/o Charles Abercrombie, Esq., 251 Penfield St., Fairfield, CT. 06430
13 comments:
I would say this is a typical biography for many lost on 9/11. People of service to others.
Audie Murphy once said, "Bravery is a matter of situational circumstance." Which would seem to describe the passengers of flight 93 very well. And all the police and fire people who walked into certain death trying to save others.
You did not say so, but I assume this is someone you knew. Remember him. Be proud of the man he was and tell his children of the man you knew.
So Biden and all the former presidents, except 96 year old Jimmy Carter, took part in today's 20th commemoration of the 9/11 attack: Presidents Clinton, Obama, and Biden in New York, and President Bush in Shanksville, where Biden will join him for another service.
All the former presidents, except Donald Trump! Where the hell was he?
I read that he's going to honor the 9/11 anniversary by hosting a boxing match tonight.
Shaw... I saw that.
I'm sure we will see a variation on the theme of one of two following reactions related to this from the extremist crowd.
1. Kudos to Presidents Biden, Bush, Clinton and Obama for helping America mourn and remember together. That's what our presidents do in times like these.
OR
2. What a bunch of fakers those ex presidents are. They enabled this for 20 years and now they are trying to rehab themselves, using the tragedy of 9/11 for their own gain. Thank God our real President, Donald Trump, chose not to participate in such a sham with those losers. Besides, President Trump knows his presence would be a distraction so he's doing the right thing by staying home. Like a real American.
Why does anyone really care where that lost soul was? Does it REALLY matter? Is there ANYTHING anubody could say or sdo that would affect him? Frankly, for him to have been there would have likely resulted in a srrong negative karma being present.
Jerry
Yes. Our family knew Kevin. His father passed just recently, his mother a few years ago.
It's difficult to remember that day. My son was scheduled, by his company, to give a presentation to the New York Port Authority on the 60th floor of the 2nd tower. Because my son had traveled the previous two weeks, his boss decided to send one of my son's colleagues instead. That young man made it out of the building, thanks to the brave first responders, but he experienced and witnessed things that caused him PTSD, and he was unable to work for a long time.
I didn't know my son was NOT in New York until my daughter in law called and said he was safe at home.
That's just one reason I have a difficult time on 9/11. So many people, like Kevin McCarthy and my son's colleague died or suffered on that day. It's difficult for me to even type and remember.
I wish peace on Kevin's family every year and all families who lost their precious loved ones.
Dave,
I just read that Trump will be going to New York, but didn't want to participate with the other presidents earlier today and be in the same place as President Biden.
Surely media will cover his visit; and because he won't be sharing the spotlight with other presidents, he'll get all the attention his narcissism craves. He'll then fly back to Florida to have fun doing the "color" for a boxing match. More fodder for his insatiable ego.
Pathetic.
RN In a sane country, no one would care. But he has millions and millions of rabid followers. And they're our fellow Americans. Who vote.
That should be reason enough to care.
RN... I think the reason TFG occupies space in the minds of many is because he and his followers represent to a lot of folks a clear and present danger to the US.
How else to explain such love and reinterpretation of the history and facts surrounding the Civil War. Never in our history have we ever had a president revise the truth of that struggle in order to hold common cause with a group of traitors hellbent on dividing the country and destroying the Union.
But I hear you RN... I have lots of friends who don't ever, and I mean ever, watch or listen to the news. They just prefer to be blissfully unbothered.
But I've tried, unless I'm down south, I can't do it.
I simpllly ask Shaw, will the folks you're railing against miraculously change their ignorance into enlightened understanding? Is anything they say going to change our thinking? Likely not. Ever.
Pausing,, and eating more rice, one grain at a time. An idea who's time is beyond due.
Former Presdident Bush, with whom I seldom agreed shared these words today at the 9/11 Memorial in Shanksville, PA...
“We have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders but from violence that gathers within... There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit. It is our continuing duty to confront them.”
I think this is what bloggers, news organizations, magazines and even social media do everyday when faced with the revisionists, insurrectionists, trumpists and even the former president himself as they work to lie, obfuscate and change the narrative of the last term, the election and the attack on our capitol on January 6.
We confront.
Dave,
President Bush compared the Jan. 6 insurrectionists to the 9/11 terrorists -- "children of the same foul spirit." Pretty powerful coming from him. And surprising.
And we damn sure know that if those who attacked the Capitol building had been foreigners, the GQP would be calling for all sorts of Congressional investigations into what happened. But because the insurrectionists/terrorists are Trump cultists, they've been trying to stop all manner of consequences for such an unprecedented attack on our government.
IMO, the current Trumpublican Party are traitors to our country. There I said it.
RN, I'm not trying to change any Trumper's mind. They're unreachable and irredeemable, as I've often stated.
This blog is for my own purposes, and that's mostly to document what's been happening and to give my opinions on various subjects.
Also, I hope it's brown rice. White rice doesn't have much nutrition.
The rice of your choosing.
Post a Comment