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Colin Bonnett: Manners and a Motorcycle

 

Colin Bonnett was a gentleman -- a Harley-Davidson-riding, bodybuilder sort of gentleman. Born in Barbados, he had been raised with Caribbean good manners that said that a door was always to be opened for a lady and that her chair should be pulled out when she sat.

He also had deep empathy for animals, and had recently rescued a stray kitten that had been wandering around his family's home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

But he also had an adventurous streak that put him on horseback with his 10-year- old son, Kody, on most weekends, or on his motorcycle. He pushed himself hard with a physical fitness regimen that included weight lifting, jogging, countless situps and no junk food. Ever.

Mr. Bonnett's natural graces helped get him his job at Marsh & McLennan, where he was a telecommunications programmer. In the early 1990's he had been working as an assistant to a Manhattan veterinarian and was about to lose his job because the doctor was closing his practice. One of the customers was a Marsh executive who invited Mr. Bonnett, 39, to fill out an application. He was transferred to the World Trade Center by the company only a few months ago.

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times