Michael Taddonio

Many Best Friends
To be Michael Taddonio's best friend was not such a singular achievement. He collected best friends, from Locust Valley High School on Long Island, where he was class president, to Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y., where his rugby teammates called him Cool.

If someone was planning a trip to Disney World, said his older brother, Richard, "he'd call up, 'Oh my best friend runs the hotel down in Disney.' "

His friendliness was an asset when he, like his older brother and his younger brother, Marc, followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and his father to work on Wall Street, becoming a bond broker for Euro Brokers in 2 World Trade Center.

"He was really a family guy," Richard Taddonio said of his 39-year-old brother, who lived in Huntington, N.Y. "When I was in New York, he'd come over every weekend. His youngest, little Mikey, was always hanging on his shoulder. He always took Mikey on the errands runs with him. You know, because weekends he'd pick up his laundry and do the food shopping and Mikey was always attached to him." His last phone call was to his mother, from the 91st floor. He told her to tell his three children he loved them.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 31, 2001.


Michael has three children, Danielle (11), Nicole (9), and Michael Joseph (5). Also, survived by his estranged wife Denise (39).

He is greatly missed by in-laws, Gene and Carole Clouthier of Fort Plain, New York, and Candace and Gregg Clouthier of the Albany area.

Michael was loved by everyone he met. His upbeat personality, made him liked by everyone he met. His is also survived by many, nieces, nephews, cousins, Aunts, and Uncles. This is a terrible loss for our family.