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Stephen P. Dimino: Generous From the Start

 

When Stephen P. Dimino turned 9, his parents organized a special birthday trip into Manhattan from their home in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. They took Stephen and his sister to see "My Fair Lady," and then they all stuck nickels and dimes into the slots at an automat to get their lunch.

But then the boy spotted an old man sitting by himself who looked hungry. He brought his sandwich over to him. Then the rest of the Dimino family followed suit, said Gigi Ebert, Mr. Dimino's sister. "We ended up giving him all of our food," she said.

Mr. Dimino, 48, who was a partner at Cantor Fitzgerald, continued to be generous. "He was someone you'd want as your neighbor," said his cousin Robert Messina. He loved to give people presents, like venison steaks from the deer he shot and souvenirs from his travels abroad. At home in Basking Ridge, N.J., he showered his daughter, Sabrina, 15, with time, too, "hunting together, playing video games together, riding roller coasters together," Mrs. Ebert said. "He started taking her to Disneyland as soon as she was old enough to remember it. He really took delight in her and in her accomplishments. I thought he was going to burst the day she was born."

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times