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WILLIAM CASPAR: Steeped in Hard Work

 

"A Kansas farm boy" Ð that is how people describe William Caspar, even though he was a data processing specialist for Marsh & McLennan who could create highly detailed electronic forms.

But every summer, Mr. Caspar would return to the Kansas farm that has been in his family for five generations so he could help with the wheat harvest.

At Marsh & McLennan, Mr. Caspar, 57, would often work long hours, a habit he picked up on the farm. "You start work when the sun comes up, and you go to sleep when the sun goes down," Tony Alaimo, a colleague, quoted Mr. Caspar as saying. "That's how we were raised."

Mr. Caspar, who had been divorced for many years, spent holidays with his sister's family in Scituate, Mass. "He was a good role model to have around my children," said the sister, Margaret Richardson. For years, Mr. Caspar worked out of a Princeton, N.J., office with a small group of people who often socialized together on weekends and grew very close. They were transferred to the World Trade Center in February.

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times; Picture from CNN