By:Jeff Lipton
When he arrived from England about 20 years ago, Howard Selwyn brought with him his strong work ethic and love for soccer.
Selwyn, 47, parlayed his business interests into success as a money broker and imparted the love of the game of soccer to hundreds of children he coached in the Hewlett-Lawrence Soccer Club.
That's how he was fondly remembered at a memorial service attended by more than 200 people at Congregation Sons of Israel in Woodmere on Sunday, Sept. 30.
Selwyn, of Hewlett, was working for EuroBrokers on the 84th floor of Tower Two of the World Trade Center when it was attacked by terrorists
Sept. 11. His wife, Ruth, received news of the attack while she was shopping at Costco on Rockaway Turnpike in North Lawrence. She said that because the morning sky was crystal clear, from the parking lot she could see the buildings smoldering, and her heart sank.
She said she hurried home to see if Howard had left a message for her on the answering machine. In 1993, Selwyn was in the towers when a terrorist's bomb exploded, and he left the message, Ruth, I'm OK. But she received no such message this time.
In the Sept. 11 attack, EuroBrokers, where Selwyn worked since 1989, lost 60 employees, with six confirmed dead and 54, including Selwyn, still missing.
His wife has spoken to clients who said he told them, I'm getting out of here, after the second hijacked plane struck the Twin Towers. That is the last anyone has heard from him.
Both British natives, Ruth and Howard Selwyn met when they were separately on vacation in Israel in 1973 and married six years later in Leeds, England. They then visited the U.S., fell in love with it and moved to Manhattan in 1981 and to Hewlett two years later after staying briefly in Long Beach. They lived in Hewlett since 1983.
He really loved New York, Ruth said of her husband. He had the best of both worlds over here.
She described her husband as a wonderful father, who arrived at work at 5:30 a.m. at the World Trade Center so he could complete his foreign exchange business dealings with England for his company. He got home at about 2:30 p.m., just before his son, now a fifth-grader at Hewlett Elementary School, arrived home from school.
He was a real Mr. Mom, said his wife, who works at JFK airport until 6 p.m. He was unbelievably energetic.
Selwyn became involved in Hewlett-Lawrence Soccer Club in 1987 when his son James, now 19 and a student at University of Buffalo, began to play for the club.
Howard played soccer in England as a kid, said his wife. And when he came over here to the U.S., it was a relatively young sport and he always felt that his knowledge could be valuable.
He coached the Hewlett Blue Blast, a team of boys under 10 years old, who competed against other traveling teams in Nassau County.
He was always very positive. He never yelled at the kids. He was always constructive, said Steven Hochberg of Woodmere, who knew Selwyn for six years and coaches the Blue Marksmen, the club's boys 11-and-under team. He told the kids that they were out there to have fun. He wanted the kids to love soccer as much as he did.
Selwyn also played on the Baldies
