Gregg Reidy

Making Sure to Live
The words were written on a small scrap of paper, found in Gregg Reidy's car. "Every man dies. But not every man lives."

The quotation, spoken by Mel Gibson in the movie "Braveheart," compelled Mr. Reidy to approach life with zest and vigor. "A few people said he was 25, but as far as how much he did with his life it was like he lived a life of a 50-year-old," said his sister, Ann Curti.

After graduating from college in 1998, Mr. Reidy immersed himself in the culture of Wall Street. He loved the stress and excitement of his job as a trader at Cantor Fitzgerald. Spending time with friends and family was also a priority.

His ingenuity was fodder for countless family tales.

Three years ago, when his parents bought a house in an adult community in Holmdel, N.J., Mr. Reidy moved in too. Although his living quarters were much smaller than they had been in the family's previous house, he would not be undone. Mr. Reidy built a bed in his room that stood high enough to fit a sofa underneath. "My dad said if Gregg was not gone when it first happened, he would have made a parachute, and he would have figured a way to get out," Mrs. Curti said. "So we really believe it was the impact that took him."


Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 28, 2001.


Gregg Reidy, 25, trading floor go-getter From the moment Gregg Reidy graduated from college in 1998, he had his sights fixed on Wall Street. He worked there one summer as a page and loved it, and he quickly secured a full-time job on the trading floor, where it is all hurly-burly and raw capitalism.

And there, Gregg Reidy flourished.

Even when he got promoted nine months ago -- literally and figuratively -- to the World Trade Center offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, on the 101st floor of the North Tower, he still looked fondly on his days in "the Pit."

"On the floor, it was hard. But you know, he liked it," said Mary Reidy, his mother. "It was his personality."

Game for anything -- "a self-confident go-getter," said his sister, Maureen Yetman -- Mr. Reidy was 25 years old when he was killed in the Trade Center collapse on Sept. 11.

When he is remembered at a 2 p.m. memorial service Sunday at St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church in Atlantic Highlands, it will be the Gregg Reidy "who loved life and lived it to the fullest" who friends and family will talk about, his sister said.

Mrs. Reidy said her son also had a wicked sense of humor.

"Even up at Cantor Fitzgerald, where they are very serious about work, they liked to joke around and he would play practical jokes," Mrs. Reidy said.

But at heart, said his sister, Maureen, Gregg Reidy "was someone you could count on for anything . . . a devoted son, brother, and uncle."

Mr. Reidy was born in Red Bank, raised in Middletown, and moved to Holmdel in 1998. He was a graduate of Mater Dei High School and Manhattanville College.

Mr. Reidy also is survived by his father, Thomas Reidy of Holmdel; his sister, Ann Curti of Middletown, and two neices and a nephew. An older brother, Thomas, died in 1984.