Susan Elizabeth Ancona Pinto

Conquering Time

Susan Pinto's gift to her two sons was her time. Get to the soccer and basketball games, every single one. Arrange for vacations skiing, white-water rafting, a visit for Nicholas, 13, and Joseph, 11, to their grandmother's house in Florida, squeezing in a side trip so the boys could swim with the dolphins.

Time was also her asset at work. On the 103rd floor of 1 World Trade Center, she was vice president of systems infrastructure for Cantor Fitzgerald's eSpeed division, but she also sandwiched in time to play on its softball team. The drive to Manhattan from New Springville, her neighborhood in Staten Island, often called for her to leave home at 6 a.m. to be able to get back for an afternoon sports event. Sept. 11 was such an occasion, a big one for Nicholas, who would be 14 the next day. Football had arrived at St. Joseph-by-the-Sea High School, and it was Nicholas's first game of the year. Mrs. Pinto, 44, cellphone and pager in hand, had a plan to fit in everything that was important.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 1, 2002.


Susan Pinto, 45, loved her kids above all On the morning of the World Trade Center disaster, Susan Pinto came in to work early, an assignment on the 103rd floor of the North Tower. Her 14-year-old son, Nicholas, was playing high school football that evening, and she wanted to leave early to catch his game, her sister said.

It was not to be. Like hundreds of others employed by Cantor Fitzgerald, Ms. Pinto, 45, perished Sept. 11.

"She enjoyed her job, but the job was only to provide her children with every opportunity in this life," said her sister Barbara Gray of Bayonne. "Her children were her first job, her first and last love."

An employee of Cantor Fitzgerald for 20 years, Ms. Pinto was a vice president of eSpeed Systems Infrastructure. In that position, she helped put together an Internet trading system for the bond brokerage firm, a job that involved traveling to Chicago and overseas.

"She loved the challenge," her sister said.

In the hours before the terrorist attack, Ms. Pinto had followed her usual commute to work. Driving from her Staten Island home, she parked at Liberty State Park before taking the Bayonne Light Rail to work.

En route, about 7:30 a.m., she phoned a friend who was facing a court appearance to encourage her.

"She called to give me support and wish me luck, to let me know she was there for me," said Patricia Frostbaum of Staten Island. "No matter how busy she was, she always had time for others."

Born in Brooklyn, Ms. Pinto lived in Staten Island for more than 20 years. She attended Hunter College in New York for two years in the mid-1970s.

Away from work, Ms. Pinto enjoyed the outdoors with her children, Nicholas, a freshman at St. Joseph High School, and Joseph, 11, a sixth-grader at St. Patrick Elementary School, both in Staten Island.

All three went white-water rafting last fall at the Delaware Water Gap. This past summer, they traveled to Florida, where they swam with dolphins, her sister recalled.

As a child, Ms. Pinto's parents would take her and her three siblings from their home in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn to Lake Hopatcong for a family swimming outing. On the trip, the family would stop for ice cream. Ms. Pinto would get pistachio, two scoops, her older sister recalled.

In addition to Gray and her sons, Ms. Pinto is survived by her sister Dorothy Nigro of North Fort Myers, Fla.; a brother, Frank Ancona of Winston-Salem, N.C.; and her mother, Dorothy Ancona of Beverly Hills, Fla.

A memorial visitation will be from 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at the Migliaccio Funeral Home, 851 Kennedy Blvd., Bayonne.

A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Richmond Road, Staten Island.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Nicholas and Joseph Pinto Educational Fund, a scholarship for Ms. Pinto's two children.