By Joseph Kellard
This year, the Oceanside/Island Park Herald honors four firefighters as our 'People of the Year.' We honor these four men not only for their ultimate sacrifice on Sept. 11, but for the heroism and bravery they displayed every day in the line of duty.
Ken Marino
Rescue 1
Ken Marino, an Oceanside native and firefighter with the elite Rescue 1 in New York City, was a big fan of baseball, and his favorite player was Ken Griffey, Jr. When the star center fielder was with the Mariners, Marino went to see him play while in Seattle. He met his sports hero that day and gave Griffey a FDNY T-shirt for his son, Trey.
Marino was among the first firefighters to enter the incinerating Twin Towers on Sept. 11. Not long after he was killed, his wife Katrina e-mailed the Cincinnati Reds to ask Griffey if he would hit a home run at his next game in honor of her husband. The slugger, who remembered Marino, followed through with her request.
"I wanted him to know he was Kenny's favorite player, and if he could get that kind of hit, it would mean so much for my kids and how they remember him," Katrina said. Marino left behind two children, Kristin, 4, and Tyler, 1.
It seemed entirely appropriate to Marino's family, friends and coworkers, who gathered at St. Anthony's R.C. Church in Oceanside for a memorial service, that the organist would play, "Take me out to the ballgame," as mourners departed the church.
"For as long as I can remember, he always wanted to be a firefighter," said Marino's lifelong friend Anthony Granice.
"He wanted to save people. He wanted to rescue people," said Marino's mother, Mary Ann.
Twenty years ago Marino began pursuing his dream to become a New York City firefighter as a volunteer for the Oceanside Fire District. In 1987, he moved to Long Beach and joined that city's fire department. Three years later his dream came true, as he joined the FDNY. He remained a volunteer firefighter until 1997. In recent years, he moved his family to Monroe, N.Y. and rose through the ranks of the FDNY, becoming a member of Rescue 4 in Queens, the unit that lost two of its members on Sept. 11, and just last year he joined Rescue 1.
To his fellow firefighters in the company, the 6'5", burly Marino, a track star and member of Oceanside High School's Hall of Fame, was known as "Little Ken." Rescue 1 firefighter John Flately described Marino as a "kid at heart" who was nevertheless a big man on the job.
In what was undoubtedly reflective of his work while the WTC, Flately recalled Marino risking his life 20 stories above ground to rescue a worker whose scaffolding had collapsed.
"It makes me proud that in the end he was still there saving people's lives," Flately said.
"He chose the noblest of professions," Granice said, "becoming one of New York's Bravest in order to save others."
In turn, Griffey has become one of Marino's biggest fans. "There are so many people who lost their lives in this disaster," he said after the game when he hit a homer for Marino. "It doesn't matter what I do on the baseball field. This guy lost his life trying to save others. His wife asked me to hit a home run, and I was able to do it. I'm glad I was able to make him smile."
Tom Gardner
Haz-Mat 1
In the wake of Sept. 11, New York's Mayor Rudy Giuliani attended many funerals, one of which was for Oceansider Tom Gardner. Giuliani came to the memorial service at St. Anthony's R.C Church in Oceanside, where hundreds of friends and rescuers went to mourn, to invoke the name of Revolutionary War hero Col. Thomas Gardner and to described the Oceanside resident as a modern-day defender of freedom.
"Thomas gave his life for people he never met," the mayor noted. To Gardner's family, he said, "I thank you for Tom. America thanks you for Tom. Our city will never forget the courage and sacrifice of firefighter Tom Gardner."
Gardner was a firefighter for 16 years and a member of Haz-Mat Co. 1. He was specially trained on a variety of toxic threats, including anthrax, and he traveled throughout the country teaching law enforcement agencies how to handle these dangers. During his career, Gardner earned three citations for valor.
Not only did Gardner save lives, he enjoyed brightening people's outlooks by making them laugh. He and fellow firefighter John Larocchia, his best friend, were a radio team on WGBB/1240-AM. They hosted a weekly show and had honed their comedy skills to the point of penning a treatment for a TV comedy on firemen. Gardner was the more understated of the two, and he accused Larocchia of advertising the show so often that he'd probably plug it at Gardner's funeral, which he did.
Gardner's humerous side was captured best wife Liz's recollection of their first date, 21 years ago. He drove up to her house in his Ford Fairlane and met her father for the first time. Gardner was dressed as a cheerleader for Halloween. Since then, she said, her husband had opened her eyes to many new experiences, as the couple traveled together to Africa, Hawaii, the Grand Canyon and their "beloved Maine."
Beside his two children, Amy, 9, and Christopher, 6, Gardner's other loves were science, a subjected he taught as a substitute in Oceanside, and hockey, as he played defense alongside his brother Joe during games at the Long Beach Arena.
Speaking at the end of Gardner's service, Larocchia said his modest friend wouldn't have been comfortable with all of the talk about him, and that he'd rather talk about the other guys that were lost. So Larocchia read the names of all of the other rescuers that were lost from Haz-Met 1.
Before departing, Giuliani paid his respects to Gardner's family and left his two children with a message. "Your dad hasn't left you. No one can take your dad away from you. You're going to grow up with a part of that strength in you. Not many children have a dad who was a great man."
Robert Spear
Engine 26
At age 11, not long after his father died, Rob Spear joined a kids program of the Civil Air Patrol. Having grown up in Oceanside with his three sisters and mother, Spear was searching for and found camaraderie with men in that organization. The brotherhood that he found in the Air Patrol, in part, inspired him to become a firefighter, said Irene, his mother.
"He loved helping people. He was always helping somebody," she said.
At the time of the terrorist attacks, Spear, 30, was working as a firefighter with Engine Co. 26 in mid-Manhattan, in the midst of a year-long rotation from his original company in the South Bronx.
While in the Civil Air Patrol, Spear had developed a love of working hard. As a teenager he was already working as a truck driver for various companies out of Kennedy Airport as he waited to be called to fight fires. In 1992, he joined the U.S. Army and became a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C.
"He was such a hard worker. He would do anything to make extra spending money here and there," Irene said.
After the military, he landed a job as a supervisor with Emery World Wide, a freight forwarding company at JFK. But he left that job and took a $30,000 pay cut to pursue his dream with Engine Co. 50/Ladder 19 in the South Bronx.
Spear married wife Lorraine in 1999, and the couple planned to start a family at their new home in Valley Cottage, N.Y.
"They had a fantastic relationship and marriage and they would do everything together," Irene said.
More recently, Spear had bought a Honda motorcycle and was teaching Lorraine how to ride it, as they took their first long ride up to Bear Mountain and West Point earlier this year. He also enjoyed boating, fishing and other outdoor activities, as well as going out to dinner and plays in Manhattan with his wife.
At the time of his death, Spear was working toward his long-range goal of becoming a Battalion Chief with his fire company.
John Florio
Engine 214/Ladder 111
"There was no doubt he wanted to be a fireman and he was ready for it," said Ed Lawrence, a life-long friend of firefighter John Florio of Oceanside. "Growing up he would talk about being a forest ranger. You knew he didn't want a job where he was sitting behind a desk."
Florio, 33, grew up with Lawrence in Middle Village, Queens, and graduated from St. Francis Preparatory High School in Fresh Meadows in 1985. He moved to Oceanside eight years ago after marrying his wife, Shari. Together they had two children, Michael, 7, and Kylie, 2.
After attending Nassau Community College, Florio took the fire department test, but he had to wait another few years until he was called to be a firefighter. When the NYFD finally called, he was very excited, Shari said.
At first, he worked at a company in Queens for six months before he was transferred permanently to Engine 214, Ladder 111 in Brooklyn.
In describing Florio's character and personality, Lawrence said, "He was a great friend to everyone, and he was always upbeat and fun-loving and never in the dumps about anything." The two men grew up three houses apart formed a brotherly-like friendship over the years.
If he wasn't spending time with Lawrence fishing, golfing or attending New York Giants football games, Florio was coaching his son's little league team in Oceanside and football team in East Rockaway.
A stocky, muscular man, Florio routinely worked out with weights while listening to his favorite band, Metallica. The heavy metal band's lead singer, James Hetfield, got to know Florio through letters. After learning of Florio's death, Hetfield sent a heartfelt note to Shari to be read at the funeral.
