By JOSEPH KELLARD
James was employed by Cantor Fitzgerald, the World Trade Center-based bond trading firm that lost every one of the 700+ employees who were at work on Sept. 11. James worked in Cantor's office on the 105th floor, where he was a broker on the mortgage desk.
"He was an excellent family man who lived for his girls," Joanne said.
"During the summer, he'd come home and walk up the driveway swinging his
keys, which was his way of letting his girls know he was home. He didn't need
any down time to take a load off. He'd change his clothes right away and play
ball with them or take them for bike rides or go bowling or play miniature
golf."
Born in Brooklyn, "Kells," as James's wife and loved ones called him,
moved with his family to Merrick when he was in kindergarten. He and Joanne
were neighbors and became friends in 5th grade. When they were 16, they began
dating while attending Brookside Junior High School and Callhoun High School, where they graduated in 1979. James attended Geneseo College in Fredonia, N.Y., where he majored in criminal justice and minored in psychology.
The childhood sweethearts married in July 1988 and resided for eight
years in Massapequa, where their two oldest daughters were born, Brianne, 9,
and Katie, 7. Five years ago, the Kellys moved to Oceanside, where they welcomed
twin daughters, Colleen and Erin, 4.
After graduating college in 1983, James, 39, briefly painted and tended
bar before being hired by the brokerage firm RMJ Securities in Manhattan. A
few years later, he went to work for FBI Brokerage, which went out of
business. By Sept. 11, James had worked for Cantor for 10 years.
James jumped from each of these firms with the same group of about 15
men, all of whom developed a brotherly-like bond with one another.
"Kells loved going to work because he worked with a great group of guys,"
Joanne said.
When he wasn't with his family, he spent time with his buddies playing golf, attending communion and wedding parties, and taking trips, one of which was planned for Ireland in October.
Kells and his friends experienced the first terrorist attack on the World
Trade Center in 1993. When the bomb exploded in the building's basement, James and his co-workers were on the 102nd floor. They were forced to form human chain to travel the tower's blacked-out staircase. It took them six hours to get out of the building.
"After that bomb, I kept on saying, 'Kells, it's too high,' but he went
back," Joanne explained. "He never said that was going to stop him from doing
what he loved. It was his job and he went. He thought the towers were
beautiful and loved working in them."
On Sept. 11, Joanne was on the phone with her husband when she heard a loud noise that, at first, she thought came from her house.
"Kells dropped the phone and I heard a lot of banging. Then he picked it
up and I heard people in the office throwing out people's names and asking if
they were okay. I asked what was going on and Kells said, 'I don't know,
Joey, something hit us. Turn on the TV.' After clicking different channels
for a few minutes, CNN had a picture of smoke coming out of the building. I
told him, 'I don't know what hit you.' He said it was probably a bomb, and
then we were cut off. I kept calling him, dialing and dialing, but I couldn't
get him back."
Until news of the second plane hitting the north tower, Joanne thought a small plane hit the tower by accident and that her husband would be okay.
"He and his friends were young and strong and all athletic. I really
thought he was coming home. You just think they're indestructible because they
made it out in 1993. And they all would have stayed until the last one was
out. That's how close this group was."
The only peace Joanne has is that her husband didn't die alone but with
all his friends, she said.
She described her husband as outgoing and fun and someone who spent a lot
of time in their family room, known as "Kells's domain." He was an avid Mets
and Giants fan, and if he wasn't there watching their games on their TV, he
was taking the Squad to Shea Stadium, which he did often.
Angered that her children, as she said, "have been robbed of their
father," Joanne and her daughters are coping with their loss through visits to the school psychologist and local church bereavement groups.
"My husband was a great guy," Joanne said. "I'm sure everyone says that
about a loved one they lost. But he really was a great guy. There wasn't a
person I knew who met him who didn't like him. Everybody loved Kells."
