Not Going Halfway
What is the point. . . .
. . . of doing something if not all the way?
So at 10, Swede Joseph Chevalier plants pumpkin seeds, then sells his harvest to nursery schools around Middletown, N.J.
At 16, he starts a landscaping business that he keeps going by commuting home weekends from Cornell, and throughout his time at Cantor Fitzgerald, where he was, at 26, an assistant equities trader.
Don't just join a fraternity: be president for two years and then get inducted into Cornell's honor society for campus leaders.
Don't just admire cars: trade up four in six years and drive them too fast.
Don't sit back and watch sports: fling yourself at them, especially speed-and-thrill ones like ice hockey and mountain biking.
Do define crash-dieting as a day fueled by 10 puny power bars, and a dinner that begins with lasagna, hamburgers, sausage and chicken and keeps on going.
Do choose a favorite song from a new CD, play it loudly, over and over, until everyone sings it in their sleep, regardless of whether they actually like it.
Do be overprotective of your mother, Elaine; sisters, Tylia and Brittany; girlfriend, Melissa Markewich.
Gamble big. Lend happily. Love fully. Never sit still.
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 31, 2001.
CHEVALIER-Swede Joseph. 26, of Locust, NJ, an equities trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, died September 11 at World Trade Center. Graduate of Cornell University, 1998, The Peddie School, Christian Brothers' Academy, Rumson Country Day School. Member of Phi Delta Theta and Sphinx Head Honorary. Visitation will be held Wednesday, September 19, 7 PM, at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Colts Neck, NJ and a funeral mass will follow on Thursday at 9 AM. Contributions may be made in his memory to Cornell University, Attn: L. Robinson, 55 Brown Road, Ithaca, NY 14850
Paid Notice published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 18, 2001.
Swede Joseph Chevalier, cultivated mums
When Swede Joseph Chevalier turned 16, he bought himself an answering machine at Radio Shack and received a small dump truck from his grandfather.
He turned the gifts into a thriving landscaping business based on his family's 15-acre estate in the Locust section of Middletown Township in Monmouth County, where he lived. A diligent worker, he continued the venture part-time even after he joined the white-collar business world.
Mr. Chevalier, 26, went to his day job Tuesday morning as an equities trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, where he worked on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center.
Now, his younger sisters, Tylia, 20, and Brittany, 15, are left to tend to 7,000 chrysanthemum plants without him.
Family members described Mr. Chevalier as their "rock," whose witty remarks and self-effacing humor made them laugh.
During an Independence Day celebration about 10 years ago, he saved his youngest sister from flames engulfing her dress while she was playing with sparklers.
"He was an extremely courageous kid," said his father, Vernon. "Swede took her and with his body, rolled her on the dirt."
He attended Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft for two years and graduated in 1994 from the Peddie School in Hightstown.
A 1998 graduate of Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Mr. Chevalier spent two years as president of his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, and was inducted into Sphinx Head, an honorary society for campus leaders.
He shared a love of adventure with his father, who remembered mountain biking down a single-track path from the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado with his son several years ago. It was a narrow path with 300-foot drops.
"It was dangerous, but he loved it," his father said.
Mr. Chevalier also loved golf, and was a frequent player at Navesink Country Club.
In addition to his father and sisters, he is survived by his mother, Elaine, and his companion, Melissa Markewich. He is also survived by his maternal grandparents, Joseph and Helen Polguy of Sayreville, and his fraternal grandfather, Vernon Chevalier Sr. of Sayreville.
Visitation will be at St. Mary's Church in Colts Neck tomorrow from 7 to 9 p.m. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at the church at 9 a.m. Thursday.
Donations for a memorial scholarship at Cornell University may be sent to L. Robins, 55 Brown Rd., Ithaca, N.Y. 14850.
