Often the Best Man
Michael Duffy loved Dickens, a yellow Labrador who had been a Christmas puppy. But best friend? There the dog would have some competition. Mr. Duffy's big brother, for one. His little sister, too. Any of a dozen inseparable schoolmates from St. Anthony's High in Huntington, on Long Island.
He could have slept in a tuxedo, as often as he was asked to be in a wedding party. Last year he was in five. Truth is, says his sister, Mary Kay Duffy, if not for his friends' brothers, he might have been best man in each. He was best man at the wedding of his brother, John, who says, "I can honestly say that many of the best days of my life had been spent with Michael."
He tended to invite seven or eight friends to make up one golf foursome. But he was always "expanding the group rather than eliminating," says John Duffy. His refrain was, "Who's got it better than us?"
Ms. Duffy recalls a soulful, athletic, protective brother who "used to break my girlfriends' hearts." She says, "A running joke was that Michael could always date my girlfriends but I couldn't date his guy friends." Michael Duffy, who joined Keefe, Bruyette & Woods as a bond salesman in August, was a week shy of 30.
Four years ago, Dickens's best Christmases were past. Old, ill and in pain, the family pet needed only that last trip to the vet. Michael Duffy made the trip on his own. He kept the dog's collar over his bedpost.
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 28, 2001.
DUFFY-Michael Joseph. Tragically at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 in his 29th year, loving son of the Honorable John M. Duffy (District Court Judge), and Barbara (nee Maguire) Duffy, devoted brother of Mary Kay Duffy and John M. (his wife Siobhan) Duffy, beloved grandson of Marie Maguire & Katherine Duffy. Family will receive friends and family Sunday, Sept. 23, 2-5 & 7-9PM at Nolan & Taylor-Howe Funeral Home, 5 Laurel Ave., Northport, NY 11768. Funeral Mass Monday Sept. 24th, 2001 at 10AM, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs R.C. Church, Centerport, NY. Donation in Michael's memory to Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church, Parish Outreach, PO Box 0609, Centerport, NY 11721 or American Cancer Society appreciated.
