JOANNE AHLADIOTIS

JOANNE AHLADIOTIS

When Joanne Ahladiotis went shopping, she’d often return with outfits for her friends and family members. When her friend from sixth grade, Cynthia Acritelli, first got married, Ms. Ahladiotis would be toting a gift each time she visited.

“She was very generous and very giving,” said Cynthia Acritelli, who said Ms. Ahladiotis was like her sister.

She says Ms. Ahladiotis loved going to the beach, cooking, entertaining and spending time with friends. She dreamed of getting married and someday having children.

But Ms. Ahladiotis’ life was cut short when she went to work in the World Trade Center one September morning. She was one of the nearly 3,000 people killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

The weekend before she died, she and Ms. Acritelli went to see the movie “Legally Blonde.”

“She is Elle Woods in that movie,” Ms. Acritelli said, referring to the blonde, bubbly main character. “That’s the way she was. Just fun.”

Ms. Ahladiotis, a Rocky Point High School graduate, was a recently-promoted manager for the financial services company eSpeed, a division of Cantor Fitzgerald. She majored in computer science at Stony Brook University and received her certification in math education. She planned to replace the business world with a career as a teacher when she had a family.

At least every two years, Ms. Ahladiotis would visit Crete, Greece, where she had family members who she remained close with despite the distance. She lived in Forrest Hills, Queens, but returned to Rocky Point every weekend in the summer to see her family and go to the beach.

Ms. Acritelli remembers her friend as someone who loved having fun.

“She lived every day to its fullest,” she said. “She just enjoyed everything.”

JAMES CHRISTOPHER CAPPERS

JAMES CHRISTOPHER CAPPERS

In college they called the tall and handsome athlete “Clark Kent,” whom they thought he resembled.

And James Christopher Cappers loved taking his athleticism into the great outdoors, where he often went water skiing, hiking and camping with friends and with his wife, Kathleen Vieira.

Mr. Cappers was an assistant vice president and private client broker with Marsh & McLennan, a financial services firm. The father of two boys worked on the 94th floor in the north tower of the World Trade Center when his life was cut short on Sept. 11, 2001.

“He was always there if you needed him,” Steven Vaughn, who had been friends with Mr. Cappers since the sixth grade, said this week. “It doesn’t matter where he was or what he was doing. You’d give him a call and he’d be there at the drop of a hat.”

Mr. Cappers was 33 when he was killed. He was living in Wading River with his family.

He grew up in New Jersey, graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania. He earned a degree in finance from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, where he played rugby and lacrosse, according to a report in the Newark Star-Ledger.

Now, friends are flooded with memories of Mr. Cappers as the 10th anniversary of the day he was killed nears.

“It’s one of those times of year where it’s solemn,” Mr. Vaughn said. “It doesn’t get easier. It brings memories back.”

“You hang on to the good, positive thoughts,” he added, “and you move on.”

MICHAEL CURTIN

MICHAEL CURTIN

Rocky Point High School graduate Michael Curtin was supposed to cook a birthday dinner for his wife, Helga, on Sept. 11, 2001, according to a report in the New York Times. But he never made it home that night.

A squad sergeant for Truck Company 2 of the New York Police Department’s Emergency Service Unit, Sergeant Curtin, was always “thinking on his feet,” Truck 2 officer Robert Yaeger told the Times.

“If you wanted an epitome of an E cop, that would be Michael Curtin,” Mr. Yaeger said, referring to an Emergency Service Unit officer.

He was also known for whipping up massive breakfasts after Sunday morning training sessions.

Sergeant Curtin, a former marine in the Gulf War, lived in Medford with his wife and three daughters.

LISA EGAN

LISA EGAN

Lisa Egan, a Rocky Point High School graduate, was killed at the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks while working as a human resources manager at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Ms. Egan, 31, lived in Cliffside Park, N.J. and worked at Cantor Fitzgerald for four years where her younger sister, Samantha, 24, also worked.

“Lisa was the world to her,” said Debbie Strauch, Samantha’s high school friend. “They were really sweet people.”

According to The New York Times, their father, David, said he knew that the sisters were together after the plane hit.

“They would have been seeking one another immediately,” Mr. Egan told the Times. “It would have been the first thing in their minds. `Where is Samantha?’ Lisa would have said. `Where is Lisa?’ Samantha would have thought. I know they are together.”

The sisters share a memorial at Sea View Cemetery in Mount Sinai.

SAMANTHA EGAN

SAMANTHA EGAN

Rocky Point High School graduate Samantha Egan was killed at the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks while working at Cantor Fitzgerald with her older sister Lisa.

Ms. Egan, 24, lived in Jersey City, N.J. and had worked at Cantor Fitzgerald for about seven months. According to The New York Times, she planned to finish college in order to find work that would tap her business experience and her interest in charitable work.

Debbie Strauch, who graduated with Ms. Egan in 1995, said she can still sometimes hear Ms. Egan’s cheerful laugh.

“Her laugh was contagious,” Ms. Strauch said. “Her laughter is something you’d never forget.”

The two friends met in 7th grade German class and participated in various school activities, from sports to marching band.

“She played the drums and I played the clarinet,” Ms. Strauch said. “We would have fun. She was a good friend to me and a great person.”

WILLIAM FALLON JR.

WILLIAM FALLON JR.

Bill Fallon is the only Longwood High School graduate killed during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

A native of Ridge, Mr. Fallon was living in Coram at the time of his death.

The 38-year-old manager of technical support for Cantor Fitzgerald made contact with his wife, Laura, moments after a plane struck the north tower of the World Trade Center, just a few floors below his office. He told her he was evacuating and that everything would be OK.

Ten years later, Mr. Fallon’s remains have never been found.

Shortly before the first anniversary of his death, his parents, William and Elizabeth Fallon, told The North Shore Sun they would attend a ceremony at ground zero that year.

“You see, Billy was never found,” Ms. Fallon said. “But he’s there and so we have to be there, too.”

In addition to his wife, Mr. Fallon was survived by his daughters Kathleen, now 21, and Kayla, 18.

Kathleen, now a senior at Stony Brook University, shared a letter she recently wrote to her father with Newsday.

“Remember those trips you took us on?,” she wrote. “Did you ever think how much they would affect me? We walked across the Continental Divide, down the Grand Canyon, up many mountains, around geysers, and swam under the sea. Who knew I would devote my life to studying these things. I am in college now, aren’t you proud of me?”

ANA FOSTERIS

ANA FOSTERIS

Ana Fosteris was listening to Verdi’s “Macbeth” with her husband, Michael, the weekend before Sept. 11, 2001.

Ms. Fosteris, 58 at the time, randomly said she’d want la paterno mano aria to play at her funeral, Mr. Fosteris told the New York Times three months later.

“It came out of nowhere,” he said.

She didn’t know then that her funeral would come just a week later.

Ms. Fosteris worked as an insurance broker at Aon on the 103rd floor of 2 World Trade Center. She loved shopping downtown, and she would tell her husband she liked being around people who dressed up, and that Long Island was too casual, he told the Times.

The two met and married in Romania and were together for 31 years.

As Mr. Fosteris drove back from his wife’s memorial service at ground zero a month after his wife died, he played the aria in the car.

PETER MARTIN

PETER MARTIN

While many folks ran from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Peter Martin ran toward it. A 22-year veteran with Rescue 2 firehouse in Brooklyn, the Miller Place resident and Miller Place FD volunteer, was killed while attempting to save the lives of others on 9/11.

Above all other interests, Mr. Martin was said to care about nothing more than taking care of his three boys, who were aged 13, 9 and 6 at the time of their father’s death.

When The North Shore Sun first spoke with Peter’s wife, Alice, in 2002 she spoke of a lack of closure from 9/11. “Closure is a myth,” she said, adding that she was grateful that her husband’s remains were identified. “At least we have a cemetery to go to.”

Ms. Martin celebrated that first anniversary by baking cranberry bread, her husband’s favorite.

Ms. Martin would later tell The New York Times that she draws inspiration from her husband’s memory.

“I get a lot of strength from Peter,” she said. “I can almost hear him saying to me, ‘Everything’s O.K.’ ”

JOSEPH ROMAGNOLO

JOSEPH ROMAGNOLO

Joseph Romagnolo, a husband and father of four children, was killed at the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks while working as a telephone technician at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Mr. Romagnolo, 37, of Coram was last heard from when he called his father-in-law at 8:55 a.m. from his 105th-floor office in Tower One to say “he was alive, and that he was leaving,” his wife, Sandy, told Newsday.

She and Mr. Romagnolo had known each other since childhood and started dating while attending Brentwood High School. They were married in 1989 and he began working at Cantor Fitzgerald about four years later.

According to The New York Times, Mr. Romagnolo wore an American Eagle belt buckle, insisted on buying only American-made products, drove a Dodge pickup truck and rooted for the Yankees and the Giants.

Mr. Romagnolo’s younger brother, Steven, told Newsday that both of them enjoyed hunting and had jointly purchased 15 acres of land in Afton, N.Y. so their families could hunt together.

According to Newsday, Mr. Romagnolo had called his father, Sal, on Sept. 10 to say he was selling his 1999 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy in order to buy a camper for his family because he felt it would be more rewarding than owning a motorcycle.

Mr. Romagnolo’s family is expected to attend Sunday’s 9/11 memorial services at the former World Trade Center site in New York City.

KEVIN WILLIAMS

KEVIN WILLIAMS

When Times/Review Newsgroup launched the former North Shore Sun newspaper on the week of the first anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the primary photo featured members of Kevin Williams’ family.

The banner headline at the top of the page read: ‘Every minute, every day.’

It was a quote about how often the family members of 9/11 victims think about their loved ones.

In the cover story, Mike Williams said he visited ground zero quite often in the first year after Kevin was killed while working as a bond salesman at the brokerage house of Sandler O’Neil.

“I’ve been there at least 45 times,” he told the Sun on the first anniversary of his son’s death, adding that he feels closer to Kevin when visiting the site where the 24-year-old died.
Now gone for 10 years, Kevin Williams’ name still rings out in the Shoreham-Wading River community.

The baseball field at Shoreham-Wading River High School, where the 1995 graduate once played shortstop, has been called Kevin Williams Memorial Field since August 2002.
Mr. Williams was engaged and planned to marry his high school sweetheart, Jillian Volk, on Dec. 1, 2001. Instead, a different anniversary is now marked each December when Ms. Volk and the Williams family gather with community members for the annual Kevin Williams Memorial Foundation toy drive.

Every year volunteers get together to spend an afternoon wrapping Christmas presents that are then distributed to underprivileged local youths. The main focus of the charity is to support young baseball players by sending them to baseball camps and providing them with equipment.

“We know how positively sports have affected our children and wish the same experience for others, regardless of financial situations,” Kevin Williams’ parents wrote on the charity’s website.

Perhaps the greatest tribute to Kevin was made by his younger brother Jamie, who was a freshman at Northeastern University on that tragic day. After graduation, he went to work for Sandler O’Neil, the same company his brother worked for when he was killed.

Asked to talk about his brother for a newspaper article published shortly after Kevin Williams’ memorial service was held in October 2001, Jamie summed up their relationship in five words.

“He was my role model,” he said.