James J. Woods

Close to Family, Literally
James Woods stuck by his friends, his family and his sports teams, even when they were in the doghouse.

When the Jets were the team everyone loved to hate, Mr. Woods would climb up to the nosebleed season-ticket seats he and his father returned to year after year.

His roommate on the Upper East Side, Jared Leschner, was his best friend from fifth grade.

And while not many 26-year-olds would relish the idea of living next door to their older sister, Mr. Woods did. "We were like best friends," said Eileen Woods, 29. "We'd go out all the time. Jogging in Central Park. Barhopping. Concerts. We were always close, but the older we got, the closer we got."

A trader's assistant at Cantor Fitzgerald, Mr. Woods worked hard, but played even harder, going on trips with his family to Ireland, golf outings to South Carolina with his college buddies, summer weekends on Fire Island.

Since Sept. 11, his father, John, has been giving his Jets tickets away. "He won't go back to a Jets game," Ms. Woods said of her father, a retired firefighter who rescued more than a dozen people during the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. "He can't go back without Jimmy."