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KEVIN F. CONROY: Supper Every Night

 

By day, he was an accountant at Marsh & McLennan, the insurance brokerage company that occupied seven upper floors at 1 World Trade Center. Evenings, Kevin E. Conroy, 47, the father of four children ages 6 to 12, insisted that his family get together at home in Kensington, Brooklyn, for supper (not dinner) that he often prepared.

There was his infamous eggplant parmigiana. Salad. Pasta. Meat and potatoes. Barbecue. "Nothing too extravagant," said a cousin, Lynn Taylor. "They were the only family I knew that cooked dinner every night. It was just important for him that the family sit together at the house."

The schedules of youth leagues and school tested the custom; some nights it was just pizza ordered in. But Mr. Conroy always looked forward to the suppers and, on weekends, playing the gracious host for gatherings of friends and family.

"We shared some great times, drank some beer, had lots and lots of laughs," said a letter from two other cousins, Tom and Oonagh, that was read at a memorial service last week. "And Kevin, the barbecues were great."

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times