Path of fallen Rockville Centre hero inspires thousands

Stephen Siller’s journey ended at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, after he heroically ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in full firefighter’s gear. He gave his life to save others.

But his difficult path had begun nearly 25 years earlier.

By 1976, when Siller was 10, he had lost both of his parents, George and Mae Siller. Stephen was the youngest of seven siblings, and it was decided that he would move to Rockville Centre to live with Russ Siller, the eldest. “He had a very hard time with both his parents dead,” Russ recalled. “He had a journey not just into the tunnel, but in his life to accept what happened and go on living.”

Russ and his wife, Jackie, who did not have children, did their best to help Stephen acclimate to a new life, despite being in a new situation themselves. They traveled often, and Stephen went along on a trip to Ireland that first summer.

He attended St. Agnes Cathedral School, and by the time he entered high school, he was a popular jack-of-all-trades. “He was charismatic,” Russ said. “He was funny, he was bigger than life by the time he hit high school.”

Stephen played on a freshman basketball team that was coached by his brother, and starred in a number of St. Agnes plays, including “Riders to the Sea” and “Music Man.”

Russ described another experience that proved to him how strong Stephen was. Russ took his brother to see the movie “My Life As a Dog,” the story of two brothers whose parents die and who are sent to live with relatives.

“I didn’t know how closely the movie would follow the book,” Russ said. “I sat there thinking this was the worst mistake I could have made in my entire life. After it ended, I asked what he thought and he said, ‘It was great — it was the story of my life!’”

Russ and Jackie played many roles in Stephen’s life. “… I’ve been a brother to him, a father figure, a grandfather in the sense of his kids, and a plain, ordinary friend,” Russ said. “And he could rely on my wife. She was always giving and organized, centered and calm.”

Stephen was part of the last graduating class of St. Agnes High School, and when he left Rockville Centre, he joined his brother Frank as a salesman at Staten Island Furrier and also worked in construction. His dream at the time was to join the Air Force.

According to Russ, that desire was in keeping with Stephen’s personality. “I think given what happened to him, with the death of his parents and his battle to sort of center himself and come to grips with that, made him realize that the life of an individual is not just about them,” Russ said. “They have a social contract with the world, and he was aware of the needs of others.”

Stephen and his wife, Sally, had five children, and by all accounts he was a devoted husband and father. At age 29, he joined the New York City Fire Department. He fit well into the firefighter culture with his easy-going attitude and quick wit.

“He was always like a strong cup of coffee,” said Robert Vogt, a nephew who was inspired by Siller to join the FDNY and who is now a lieutenant. “There was an excitement in the air when he worked. He brought an optimism and an energy.”

In 1999, Stephen joined Squad Company 1 in Park Slope, Brooklyn. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, he had just ended a tour of duty and was on his way to Staten Island to play golf when he heard that an airplane had crashed into one of the twin towers. He called his wife and told her he’d be late, returned to the firehouse to grab his gear and drove to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.

The tunnel had already been closed to traffic, so Stephen donned 66 pounds of gear and started running. “One of the things soldiers and firemen are trained for is to react,” said Russ. “I think he, and the 343, they knew it must have been very dangerous. “This is what they were all about. It’s part of their job, and they love their job.”

After 9/11, support groups and foundations sprung up to provide aid and comfort to victims’ relatives and friends, and Rockville Centre was no exception.

“Rockville Centre and [Parks and Recreation Superintendent] Tony Brunetta and the Friends of Rockville Centre 9/11 Memorial Foundation has been great, especially in those first few years when everyone needed it,” Russ said. “They had golf outings and baseball games … the first golf outing we went to in 2002 was one of the first few days that I felt like a human being.” Russ added that the village’s memorial, on the Village Green, is one of the most beautiful he has seen.

Stephen’s family created the Stephen Siller Let Us Do Good Foundation, which supports a number of charities that would have been near and dear to him, helping abused or neglected children, victims of Hurricane Katrina, quadruple amputees returning from war and New York-area burn patients. Since it was founded in September 2002, the foundation has raised several million dollars. Its main fundraiser, the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Run/Walk, will celebrate its 10th year on Sept. 25. Russ expects the event to draw as many as 20,000 participants, and it will once again be televised live on WCBS-TV, as it has since its inception.

Though Stephen’s journey ended at the World Trade Center, it left an imprint on many lives. “The thing I learned most since [Sept. 11] is that everyone thought Stephen was his best friend, he had like a hundred best friends,” Vogt said. “When certain guys had problems in their lives, he was the first guy to be there.”

Russ wrote the following on Stephen’s memorial: “Like the comet Hale-Bopp that streaked across the sky a few years ago, Stephen’s light startled us all. When we thought it could not get any brighter, it got brighter still. Just when we were enjoying it so much, for it was so unexpected, so breathtaking, it shot across the sky and went well beyond us all, deeper into the mind of God.”

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