RYAN FITZGERALD: Man on the
Town
It
is not that Ryan Fitzgerald kept secrets from his family,
but as the oldest of three children who had just found
his own place in Manhattan, he was savoring some newfound
independence. The clues were on his credit card
bills.
Last month, when his mother opened his final bill, she
caught a glimpse of his young, exuberant life. There were
the excesses at Banana Republic, the golf games in Las
Vegas, the gifts for his girlfriend, Darci Spinner, and
textbooks for his M.B.A. work at Dowling College. Just as
revealing were the repeated visits to the same cozy
downtown restaurants.
"He obviously liked going back to places so when he
walked in, they'd know who he was," said his mother,
Diane Parks. Tall and blessed with gleaming blue eyes,
Mr. Fitzgerald was a foreign currency trader at Fiduciary
Trust.
He adored the Yankees and the Dave Matthews Band and
enjoyed living slightly beyond his means.
So in August, when he told his mother he was going to
a friend's bachelor party in Las Vegas, she advised
against it.
Now she is glad he went.
"It made me feel good that he enjoyed the summer
because it was the lastsummer of his life," she said.
Ryan Fitzgerald '97
Ryan
Fitzgerald's family consoles themselves by thinking that
now he is in a much better place. How else could they
deal with their broken hearts?
Ryan Fitzgerald '97 was the kind of guy that people
liked to have around. Good looking, easygoing,
responsible. He had a way of bringing people together.
Somehow strangers all became friends when Ryan was
involved. He still kept in touch with his classmates from
Pre-K and could fit in easily with all kinds of
people.
Ryan had plans for his life. He had just accepted a
new position at the foreign currency exchange desk at
Fiduciary Trust. In fact, the early opening of the
foreign markets is why he was at work just after 8 a.m.
on September 11.
Ryan had plans. He was finishing his M.B.A., and had
just settled into his first apartment in Manhattan. He
and his girlfriend, Darci, even talked about a winter
wedding. Ryan, who loved the beach, was only half joking
when he expressed some concern that he would not be tan
enough for it, and planned a pre-nuptial trip to Florida.
Darci, in a letter to Ryan's parents, told them the names
of the children they planned to have together.
According to his dad Brian Parks, "Ryan liked to play
basketball, but he was usually the last guy to come off
the bench." But what an enthusiastic player he was. At
one end-of-the-season game during his senior year in high
school, Ryan was called into the game. With the ball in
his hands and two minutes left on the clock, he threw and
threw "and hit nothing but air," recalled a buddy at his
memorial service. Friends say he was incredibly
meticulous, right down to the beautiful handwriting he
attributed to the nuns in his Catholic grade school. He
even stole hair "scrunchies" from his sisters Liz, 17,
and Caroline, 10, to hold his pencils together at the
office.
Ryan's mom, Diane, received a call from him at the
office around 8:50 a.m. on September 11 saying, "You
can't believe what just happened! Turn on your TV!"
Reassuring her and Darci, in another call, that he was OK
and on his way out of the building it is believed that
Ryan was caught up in a phone call from a client when the
second plane hit WTC 2. His office on the 94th floor was
above the impact area.
"We don't know what he went through," says Brian
Parks. "Perhaps we'll find out when we meet again, but
then, what happened on September 11 won't be
important."
Some friends held a party to help fund the scholarship
set up in Ryan's memory at King's, a place he found on a
spur-of-the-moment college tour he took with Essian Ikpe
'97. He later proclaimed the college a "perfect fit."
Friends and family will also donate a chalice to King's
in his honor.
.
