Anthony Demas

Always Time for His Sons

Anthony Demas's love for his twin boys began before their birth on Aug. 5, 1993. He had been born on an Aug. 4, and he asked his wife, Violetta, to wait a day so the boys would have a birthday they could call their own.

Mr. Demas, 61, was a managing director of Aon Corporation for four years, and before that had been a managing director at Marsh & McLennan, where he worked for 31 years. Colleagues described a dynamic, natural leader, a former first lieutenant in the Army, an expert in risk management, who also had the most impressive collection of family photos in the office.

His secretary told Mrs. Demas that he raced through the 105th floor office in the south tower on Sept. 11, encouraging everybody to get out. "He would never leave anyone behind," Mrs. Demas said.

Mr. Demas, whom family members called Andoni, was proud of his Greek heritage, his world-class cooking (as well as his grilled cheese sandwiches) and his 1960 Mercedes convertible, which he would drive in the Fourth of July parade in Madison, Conn., where the family has a weekend house.

But most of all, he was proud of his boys, whose names were withheld at Mrs. Demas's request. Last summer, the boys saw Greece for the first time with their parents. "Everything was about his boys," Mrs. Demas said.