Jeffrey Grant Goldflam

High Hopes Achieved

They were just high school kids from Long Island, on a date set up by friends. But "the minute we met we knew," Rise Goldflam said.

She was talking about her husband, Jeffrey Goldflam, 48. After meeting in high school and continuing to date despite attending different colleges, the Goldflams were married 25 years ago. "We grew together," she recalled.

During those years, Mr. Goldflam, of Melville, N.Y., energetically pursued his career in finance, often returning home from work at 8 or 9 p.m., sometimes as late as 11, and making monthly business trips to Europe or Chicago. After serving as the chief financial officer of Fimat USA, a subsidiary of France's Société Générale, he became the managing director and chief financial officer of Cantor Fitzgerald eSpeed at 1 World Trade Center a year before the towers were attacked.

But during his scarce time off, Mr. Goldflam devoted himself to his son and daughter, Josh and Ashley. "He just loved being around his children," Mrs. Goldflam said. "He worked for us, basically."

His wife said that Mr. Goldflam had achieved all the goals he had set. He hoped for nothing less for his son.

"He wanted me to get my business degree and try to get into finance or something similar," said Josh Goldflam, 22, a senior at Indiana University majoring in management. "That's what I'm doing."