By:Paul J. Condra
As the director of fire safety at the World Trade Center, William Wren didn't spend much time in an office. Instead, the 61-year-old Lynbrook man stood watch near the command center in the lobby of the south tower where he could keep an eye on things. And when a plane hit the north tower the morning of Sept. 11, Wren raced into action.
Survivors told the family that Wren and a small group of fire safety workers rushed to tower five to assist in the evacuation of a day-care center there. Then, Wren and the others headed back to the south tower.
Shortly after that, Wren's wife, Patricia, said she got a call from her husband saying he was okay, but that he couldn't talk because there was work to be done. She did not hear from him again.
Wren was remembered Saturday in a memorial Mass at Our Lady of Peace R.C. Church in Lynbrook. The retired firefighter was eulogized by his sons, Bill Jr., 31, and Chris, 29; Sister Mary Jane Brustman of the Congregation of the Infant Jesus; and representatives from the office of the mayor and the governor.
The number of people whose lives were saved by [the evacuation] effort is estimated to be around 25,000,said Alan Croce, the commissioner of the department of corrections from the governor's office.
Wren was a man of subtle culture, his family said, who had the admired ability to live a full life in a humble manner.
My mother described my father as an extraordinary man who led an ordinary life,Bill Wren said at the memorial.
He grew up in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn with his parents and his two sisters, Kathleen and Demme.
From 1958 to 1961, Wren served in the army under the GI Bill. He was stationed in Germany, where his wife said he fell in love with the country and traveled all over Europe.
In 1965, he briefly served as a police officer, before becoming a firefighter a year later.
In 1969 he married Patricia, who, in the coming years, gave birth to his two sons. He attended John J. College in Manhattan from 1974-1976 and earned a Bachelor of Science in fire studies. Patricia said he wrote his thesis on high-rise fires.
In 1993, Wren, having retired three years earlier from fighting fires in Brooklyn and New York City, took the job as fire safety director with OCS Security in the World Trade Center. The office had been newly created in light of the parking garage bombing that year.
He used to tell us that whatever you do, find a job you love to do,said his youngest son. We are proud of what he did that day. He loved the fire department and we know that on this situation he would want to be right next to the other firefighters.
But apart from fire-fighting, Wren had many interests, including travel, art and gardening.
My father was truly an exceptional person who could have done anything with his life, but it was in the ordinary that he found his happiness,said Bill. Dad treated the ordinary things in life as if they were the finer things books, gardening, cooking, friends and family they were dad's caviar.
Especially, he loved to spend time with his three-year-old granddaughter, Shannon. As many who knew Wren recounted, when Shannon was around, there was no separating the two.
I once told Dad that if he bought her a present every time he saw her, she was going to grow to expect it. Dad smiled and simply said, so? his oldest son remembered.
According to Sister Mary Jane, Wren used to make a quiche with his homegrown zucchini, which he would give to the sisters at church along with other vegetables. He used to grow strawberries, too, but as his sons said, nobody ever got to taste them but Wren and his granddaughter.
At the memorial Saturday, God Bless America chimed on the church bells while Amazing Grace blew from the bagpipes. New York City service men lined the streets in memory of Wren, whose remains have not been found.
History will remember Sept. 11 as a horrible attack and an unbelievable disaster,said his son, Chris. We will remember it as the day we lost our father.
