In memory of

Richard N. Driscoll

1946 2019
The Years AfterJuly 17, 2019

Died of it afterward.

United States of America

Their life

Richard N. Driscoll III was born on February 2, 1946, and grew up in Stuyvesant, New York. After graduating high school, he served in the U.S. Army and was a veteran of the Vietnam War. On July 11, 1970, Richie proudly followed two of his uncles into the FDNY. He served as a devoted firefighter for 32 years, primarily at Engine 91 in Spanish Harlem, his second home. He was known as the “Mayor of 111th Street,” forming strong bonds with local residents and guiding junior firefighters with his signature advice, “Do the right thing.” Richie loved the job deeply and was recognized with multiple commendations for bravery and saving lives. On September 11, 2001, though off duty, Richie responded immediately to the World Trade Center attacks, driving straight into the heart of the devastation. He spent months at Ground Zero searching for his fallen brothers. His passing, six years ago, was the direct result of a 9/11-related illness, a testament to the lasting toll of that day and his selfless bravery. At home, Richie’s greatest role was as a father. He became stepdad—and only dad—to two young girls, ages 11 and 7, loving them as his own. A few years later, his daughter was born, and his pride in her shone like a badge. He raised all three daughters with patience, humor, and devotion, often capturing family memories through his beloved camera. With love in his heart and camera in hand, he helped preserve their family’s story. After retiring in 2002, Richie became active with the FDNY Orange County Retirees and was a charter member of the FDNY Orange County Pipes and Drums. He was also a member of the Knights of Columbus Council #5890, American Legion Post #488, the FDNY Holy Name Society, and the FDNY Emerald Society. Proud of his Irish heritage, he marched in parades, playing the bagpipes with honor.

When his daughters opened bakeries, Richie was their biggest supporter—spreading the word, bringing in customers, and visiting daily to order his favorites, a “cuppachino” and a “Gilbert.” His visits were filled with laughter, stories, and his modest pride. Richie was a man of quiet strength—gentle, humble, loyal, and kind. He was a devoted husband, loving father, proud grandfather, and faithful friend who cherished lifelong relationships. In June 2018, Richie was diagnosed with a 9/11-related cancer. He passed on July 17, 2019, without ever letting the illness break his spirit. He is deeply missed by all who know him. His legacy lives on not only in his acts of service, but in the humility, compassion, and love he shared with everyone around him.

How they died

Firefighter of the Fire Department of the City of New York, who died of an illness from the rescue and recovery at the World Trade Center. The department added the name to its World Trade Center Memorial Wall at the ceremony of 06 September 2019. He died on 17 July 2019, aged 73.

The Years After

September 11, 2001

For eight months after the towers came down, men and women worked the site. Firefighters, police, paramedics, iron workers, truck drivers, cleaners, volunteers. They breathed what was in that air, and many of them have died of it since - cancers, lung disease, illnesses that took ten years or twenty to arrive.

More people have now died of September 11th than were killed on September 11th. They are not a footnote to the day. They are the day, arriving late.

A man who walked down eighty flights and out into the street, and who died of a cancer in 2031, was killed by the same attack as the man who never got out. This gate holds them together, because the same morning took them both.

Everyone taken by The Years After →

September 11, 2001

September 11, 2001

On a clear Tuesday morning, four airliners were taken. Two were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York, one into the western face of the Pentagon, and one came down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after the passengers and crew went forward at the cockpit door.

Two thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven people were killed. Three hundred and forty-three were firefighters of the New York City Fire Department. Seventy-one were law enforcement officers. Eight were paramedics and emergency medical technicians. One hundred and twenty-five died at the Pentagon, military and civilian together. The rest - some two thousand four hundred of them - had gone to work, or boarded a plane, and belonged to no service at all.

None of them began that morning as heroes. A great many of them ended it as heroes: men and women who carried strangers down stairwells, who stayed with people who could not walk, who held a door, who went back up. Four men on a flight over Pennsylvania, who had thirty minutes of telephone calls and knew what had already happened, decided where their aircraft would come down.

At Arlington, the nation set aside its own rules of eligibility and buried the Pentagon's civilian dead in national ground. It had decided that on this day the distinction did not apply.

Everyone taken by September 11, 2001 →

Media

Portrait of Richard N. Driscoll
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