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A Heart in the 50's

Jude Safi used to say he wished he had been born in the 1950's. He loved Elvis and Frank Sinatra and vintage clothing. He bought a 1957 Chevrolet pickup a few years ago and restored it, painting it silver. A few weeks before the World Trade Center was attacked he attended a concert at Madison Square Garden where Elvis's old band played, in front of film clips of the King shimmying and gyrating.

Mr. Safi was only 24, but he had a 50's sensibility, his brother, John, said. "He knew the words to all the Sinatra and Elvis songs; he watched all their movies. He loved the movies. He knows every movie that's ever been out."

Mr. Safi had been working as a trader for Cantor Fitzgerald for only four months when the towers went down. He got his job through a friend he had known since kindergarten in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, where Mr. Safi still lived with his family. Another childhood friend worked there, too. None of the three have been seen since, John Safi said.

"We didn't just lose my brother, we lost his friends, too," he said.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 1, 2001.