Michael Patrick Tucker

'The Perfect Balance'
One reason the members of Michael Patrick Tucker's big family have such a hard time believing that he is gone is that they have so much to remember about him.

How he rented a friend's walk-in closet at Syracuse University and moved in, cot, clothes and all, when his father tried to encourage better grades by cutting his housing allowance. How his two little girls, Taylor, 10, and Gaffney, 7, would scream and laugh as he slithered on the floor, playing shark. How he took over the care of his twin boys, Morgan and Andy, when he got home to Rumson, N.J., each night. And how hard he worked, rising at 5 a.m. to be at his desk at Cantor Fitzgerald, on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center's north tower, where at 40 he was a partner and executive vice president.

"I find it just amazing that he was capable of working in a very demanding job and spend every moment that he had with his wife and kids, and still be able to have a good time fishing and going golfing with his friends," said his youngest brother, Chris Tucker. "He just had the perfect balance that I am still struggling to find."

June Rozniak, the mother of Mr. Tucker's wife, Mary Beth, said, "He was Michael, he was Mike, he was Tuck to his friends from school and he was Daddy, and he's still making us smile."


Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on February 24, 2002.


Michael Tucker, 40, a 'hands-on' father When a friend of Michael Tucker got laid off, he phoned the senior vice president of Cantor Fitzgerald. The 40-year-old trader from Rumson made a call and the next day his buddy had a new job.

"That was the kind of guy he was," recalled his mother-in-law, June Bulka Rozniak. "He loved everyone."

Mr. Tucker started his career in the basement of a bank, but within 12 years rose to become a partner and one of the top traders at Cantor Fitzgerald. He was at his desk on the 104th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 when a hijacked jetliner crashed into the building.

"It is still impossible to believe this was the last time we saw him," said his wife, Mary Beth, who remembered her husband as a selfless person who put others first.

Family members said Sept. 11 began normally as Mr. Tucker kissed his four daughters and wife as always, and left to catch the 6 a.m. ferry to Lower Manhattan.

Devoted to his job, Mr. Tucker always was one of the first to arrive at his desk. "What I remember, Mike loved to go to work," his mother-in-law said.

An avid golfer and fisherman, Mr. Tucker took a rare day off the day before the terrorist attack to go fishing with his buddies. But after his twins, Andy and Morgan, were born four years ago, he all but gave up golf to help raise the girls.

"Mike was a hands-on father who helped in every possible way," his wife said. "He changed diapers, stayed up all night for feedings and then went to work without a word of complaint."

Mr. Tucker was a graduate of Christian Brothers Academy and Syracuse University.

Mr. Tucker also is survived by two other daughters, Taylor, 10, and Gaffney, 7; his parents, Joan and Dr. Thomas Tucker; his sisters, Susan Jenkins and Cathy and Maureen Tucker; his brothers, John and Chris; and grandmother, Dorothy Williams.

A memorial gathering will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Navesink Country Club in Middletown. A memorial Mass will be offered at 11 a.m. Monday at Holy Cross Church in Rumson.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Tucker Girls Education Fund, P.O. Box 46, Rumson, N.J. 07760.