By Cris Italia and Joseph Kellard
At 8:46 in the morning, just as the first tower was attacked, Spear was on the phone with his wife Lorraine, while he waited for his replacement to come in. He rushed off to the World Trade Center from Engine 26 in mid-town Manhattan.
Spear's body was found last week, and he was laid to rest in Oceanside on Saturday, April 13. Spear, 30, had left Oceanside shortly after he married his wife in 1999. He had just started his career as a firefighter earlier that year.
He was a fireman's fireman, said firefighter Pat Manning, outside St. Anthony's Church. He was what you wanted a firefighter to be.
Spear was always a hard worker. As a teenager he went to work for a trucking company and in 1992, just three years after graduating from Oceanside High School, Spear joined the U.S. Army and became a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne. His relentless work effort would carry on even when he was on leave, Spear would go back to work at the trucking company.
Just being an airborne ranger, people just like him right away, said Joseph Hehir, Battalion Chief of Engine 50/Ladder 19, where Spear was first assigned. He was this care-free spirit, and he knew what he was doing at all times.
In 2001, Spear began a year long rotation assignment, which entailed him to work at various firehouses throughout the city. On Sept. 11 he was with one of the first companies to respond. Even while off-duty, Spear joined Engine 26 in their heroic climb up the twin towers. He was always that way, volunteering for everything and jumping into everything, said Lt. Larry Mack.
"I never even worried about Rob," said his mother, Irene Spear. "I never even thought anything of it. But when he never called his wife, then I knew. Because he would call her no matter what. He would have stopped in the middle of what he was doing, find a phone and call to say even just two words. But by 5 o'clock that night, I hadn't heard from him and I started to panic. I knew...I just knew."
At the time of his death, Rob Spear was working toward his long-range goal of becoming a Battalion Chief with his fire company, and he and Lorraine were planning to start a family and buy a house in Valley Cottage, New York. Recently he bought a Honda motorcycle and was teaching her how to ride it, and they had just taken their first long ride up to Bear Mountain and West Point. Rob also enjoyed boating, fishing and other outdoor activities, as well as going out to dinner and plays in Manhattan with his wife.
He will never be forgotten, Manning said. His memory will last at our firehouse and all firehouses forever.
