Douglas DiStefano: On the
Threshold
Things
were beginning to click for Douglas DiStefano.
He had been working as a trader trainee at Prebon
Energy in Jersey City, a job he got with the help of his
brother David, who worked there. It was not high pay as
yet, so he also tended bar at Hobson's Bar and Grill in
Hoboken, where he lived.
There he met Robert Wayne Hobson, who had quit his
stockbroker's job to start Hobson's but had returned to
Wall Street in 1999 and was working at Cantor Fitzgerald.
He helped Mr. DiStefano become a commodities broker
there. Mr. DiStefano, 24, began in August, and had not
even cashed his second paycheck by Sept. 11. Mr. Hobson,
too, perished in the attack.
Mr. DiStefano felt the World Trade Center was the best
address in the world, and it was proving an effective
lure for women. "He said it worked much better on the
girls," David DiStefano said. "Saying 'I work in Jersey
City' didn't go over as well as 'I work at the top of the
World Trade Center.'"
One thing Douglas DiStefano had always been really
proud of was his high school football team in West Islip
-- he was an offensive lineman -- winning the Long Island
championship. He became equally thrilled about the Cantor
job. He was talking about getting a new apartment, buying
a car. "The toughest part is he was just turning the
corner," his brother said. "He was just making it."
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