Anthony Demas: Always Time for His
Sons
Anthony
Demas's love for his twin boys began before their birth
on Aug. 5, 1993. He had been born on an Aug. 4, and he
asked his wife, Violetta, to wait a day so the boys would
have a birthday they could call their own.
Mr. Demas, 61, was a managing director of Aon
Corporation for four years, and before that had been a
managing director at Marsh & McLennan, where he
worked for 31 years. Colleagues described a dynamic,
natural leader, a former first lieutenant in the Army, an
expert in risk management, who also had the most
impressive collection of family photos in the office.
His secretary told Mrs. Demas that he raced through
the 105th floor office in the south tower on Sept. 11,
encouraging everybody to get out. "He would never leave
anyone behind," Mrs. Demas said.
Mr. Demas, whom family members called Andoni, was
proud of his Greek heritage, his world-class cooking (as
well as his grilled cheese sandwiches) and his 1960
Mercedes convertible, which he would drive in the Fourth
of July parade in Madison, Conn., where the family has a
weekend house.
But most of all, he was proud of his boys, whose names
were withheld at Mrs. Demas's request. Last summer, the
boys saw Greece for the first time with their parents.
"Everything was about his boys," Mrs. Demas said.
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