Manuel Patrocino

The Things He Built
He was extremely adept with his hands. And he approached furnishings with a dose of imagination. Skilled at carpentry, Manuel Patrocino built a smart-looking console for the television and stereo. He made shelves to hold cassettes. The sofa? He took it apart and redid it three times. A neighbor needed chairs. No problem. He built them.

"If he saw something that he wanted, he would build it," said his niece, Martha Martinez. His most distinctive creation? He built a clock out of a CD, carefully installing a watch face in its center.

Mr. Patrocino, 33, was in charge of uniforms for Windows on the World, and lived in Manhattan with his wife, Sandra, and their two children, Keyla and Alex. He normally reported to work early, and would be home in the afternoon, when he would head to the kitchen to cook a meal before the children arrived from school.

On the weekends, he liked to play dominoes with his friends. "If you saw a view of the family, he was always the happy person," said Ms. Martinez. "He always had a joke for us. When he told a joke, people would drop on the floor laughing."