Kevin M. McCarthy

An Unabashed Confidence

First think of him and Cape Cod. For Kevin M. McCarthy, the man with the catching smile who never encountered a conversational pause he couldn't fill, the salty air, sand dunes and lapping waves of Cape Cod constituted paradise. He found serenity there as a boy, and it was where he took his own family for vacations.

Then think of his facility with his hands and his knack for MacGyver-like solutions. "You gave him a string and he could create a universe," said his wife, Debra.

Then consider his unabashed confidence in himself. Risks didn't register. The proof was 98 stitches. Like the hockey stitches. The stitches from his service days when the antenna of an Army tank sliced off his eyebrow. And the box spring stitches. Unable to maneuver a box spring up three flights of stairs, he cut it in half, meanwhile sawing the inside of his hand. That was 23 stitches.

Mr. McCarthy, 42, who lived in Fairfield, Conn., with his wife and three children, Chelsea, 12, and Andrew and Stephanie, 5, was also the master of reinvention. He ran a personal service business, then became a stay-at-home father when the twins were born, and then emerged as a bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald.

On the night of Sept. 10, just before they went to sleep, he told his wife, "This is just too good to be true."

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 31, 2001.


Kevin M., age 42, of Fairfield, CT. is one of the missing victims of the attack of the World Trade Center Twin Towers. He was a Bond Broker For Cantor Fitzgerald. Born in Chelsea and raised in Reading, MA. he was the son of Charles and Marie (Fantasia) McCarthy of Orleans, MA. He was a graduate of Reading High School and attended college in Boston. He belonged to the National Guard for a number of years. In addition to his parents, he leaves his beloved wife, Debra Menich McCarthy; three children; Chelsea 11, and twins Andrew and Stephanie, 5, of Fairfield, CT. He is also survived by four sisters; Kathleen Sullivan and her husband, Richard of Concord, MA; Karen Toomey and her husband, Kevin, of Wellesley, MA; Maureen Baumgartel and her husband, Scott, of Sudbury, MA; Mary Ellen Rice and her husband, Tim, of Westport, CT; one brother, Charles Jr. and his wife, Deborah, of Back Bay Boston; and 9 nieces and nephews. A Celebration of Life will be conducted Wednesday, October 3, 2001 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Bernard's Church, Monument Square, Concord, MA. A Memorial Fund has been established, McCarthy Family Fund, c/o Charles Abercrombie, Esq., 251 Penfield St., Fairfield, CT. 06430