William Mathesen, 40, a life full of music
On the day his first daughter was born, William A. Mathesen returned to his Morris Township home and penned a song about his baby girl, Emily.
He called the tune "Emily, I Believe in You," and wrote: "As long as I have your love, I'll never be alone. I know you will always be there for me."
Mr. Mathesen later recorded the piano ballad for his daughter to keep. It is this song and other recordings that keep Mr. Mathesen's music flowing through his home, where he often was found plunking away on his baby grand piano.
"I would be reading the newspaper and he would be playing the piano," said his wife, Kathy Mathesen. "Or I would be reading a book and he would be the background music."
On Sept. 11, Kathy Mathesen called her husband around 8:30 a.m. for a routine morning chat about how his day was going so far. Mr. Mathesen was in his first month as a vice president at Euro Brokers on the 84th floor of Two World Trade Center.
Fifteen minutes later, he called his wife back to tell her that One World Trade Center had been hit by an airplane. He was distraught and said to her, "There's fire and there's people jumping out of the window."
He was too upset to talk anymore, so they hung up. The last time anyone heard from him was a client in Connecticut who was on the phone with Mr. Mathesen around 9 a.m. when the call was disconnected.
Mr. Mathesen was 40 and leaves behind his wife and two daughters, Emily, 6, and Jessica, 5.
Mr. Mathesen's love for music started when he was a young boy, listening to the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkle records with his sister, Debbie Moloney. Later in life, he taught himself how to play the guitar and the piano. He was just starting to learn how to play the harmonica and was still writing his own music.
He scribbled down lyrics on scraps of paper and in notebooks, finding inspiration through his emotions. He joked with his wife that his dream was to create a family band. Daughters Emily and Jessica would play the piano and violin, respectively, while he would strum the guitar. His wife's job, he teased, would be to flip the pages of the music books.
"He was just a happy guy," Kathy Mathesen said. "Nothing ever bothered him."
In addition to his wife and daughters, Mr. Mathesen is survived by his father, Walter Mathesen of Long Island; his sisters, Debbie Moloney of Brooklyn, Karen Schubert of Bayonne and Patti Sarrantonio of Long Island; and his brother, Stephen Mathesen of Long Island.
