By JOSEPH KELLARD
Rob Spear's last job was with Engine Co. 26 in mid-Manhattan, where he worked as a firefighter. On the morning of Sept. 11, Spear, 30, had just completed an overnight shift and was waiting to head home when he was called to the Twin Towers.
He always worked, his mother said. He was such a hard worker. He would do anything to make extra spend money here and there.
At age 11, Rob moved with his family to Oceanside. He attended School 3, the middle school and Oceanside High School. For years after he graduated from OHS in 1989, Spear tried to become a firefighter, but he had to wait several years before he got that chance. In the meantime, he drove trucks for various companies out of Kennedy Airport, and eventually he landed a job there as a supervisor with Emery World Wide, a freight forwarding company.
In 1999, he left Emery and took a $30,000 pay cut to pursue his dream. He became a firefighter with Engine Co. 50/Ladder 19 in the South Bronx, where he immediately embraced the camaraderie of the firehouse. His mother explained that Rob's father had died when he was just 11.
He grew up with his three sisters and me, Irene said. So he was surrounded by women.
Not long after his father had died, Rob joined a kids program of the Civil Air Patrol. He followed up on that service when, in 1992, he joined the U.S. Army and became a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. Indicative of his love of working hard, instead of relaxing when he came home on leave, he would return to his trucking jobs.
Even after joining the fire department, Spear would sometimes drive from his home in Valley Cottage, N.Y., near the Tappan Zee Bridge, to work around his mother's home in Oceanside. The last time Irene saw her son was the Thursday before Sept. 11, when he was scrapping paint off his sister Christine's house in Oceanside. He'd left all his tools there, planning to complete the job in coming weeks, and he returned to Oceanside the next day with his wife, Lorraine, to take his niece and her two nieces to a Backstreet Boys concert at the Meadowlands.
Rob and Lorraine met 14 years ago through mutual friends. Sparks didn't exactly fly right away, but as they went out more often, they formed a friendship that grew more serious. It turned amorous and they were together for seven years and married on May 22, 1999.
Lorraine told me that when they did finally start to like each other, he became her friend first. They were friends and then they became lovers. And in these times, it's so important to have a friend in your partner. They had a fantastic relationship and marriage and they would do everything together.
Irene noted that while her son was still living here on Long Island, he would pick her up from her job at Sacks 5th Avenue and drive her to her home in North Field, New Jersey, and then come back home. He didn't want her taking the trains late at night, Irene said.
At the time of the attacks, Spear was working at Engine Co. 26 in mid-Manhattan, in the midst of a year-long rotation from his original company in the South Bronx. At exactly 8:48 a.m. on Sept. 11, he was talking on the phone with his wife and waiting for his replacement to come in when the call came over that sent him to the World Trade Center.
Lorraine thought he was going off to a routine call and then he would come home, Irene said.
Spear's brother-in-law, Tim Haviland, who was married to Rob's sister Amy, was on the 92nd Floor of the first tower that was hit. While worried about Tim, Rob's family was unaware that he had been called to the Trade Center. Both Rob and Tim died there.
I never even worried about Rob, Irene said. 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. 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 was a great, great man, his mother said. And he loved helping people. He was always helping somebody.
A memorial service was held for Firefighter Spear on Sunday, Nov. 11, at St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church in Northvale, New Jersey, where he and his wife were married.
