.

.

  

ARLENE FRIED: Always Ready With Advice

 

Arlene Fried, the vice president and assistant general counsel at Cantor Fitzgerald, was a hard-driving lawyer who handled multimillion-dollar initial public offerings during the dot-com era. At Cantor, she played an essential role in the creation and public financing of eSpeed. Young Wall Street hopefuls constantly sought her out for advice, and she was always willing to give it.

But there was another Arlene Fried. She enjoyed juicy gossip and shopping until she dropped - a cliché, perhaps, but her friend Nina Gaspar said it really was like that.

Mrs. Fried, 49, of Roslyn Heights, N.Y., was also a dedicated wife and mother to her three daughters. "It was not unusual for Arlene to come rushing into a parent school conference or a school play, a few minutes late, out of breath and apologetic - but she was always there," said Ms. Gaspar's husband, Andrew.

On Sept. 11, Mrs. Fried was trying to help a young lawyer who wanted to know where he should apply for a job, said her husband, Kenny. She returned the lawyer's telephone message at 8:44 a.m. He was not there, so she left a message. Four minutes later, the first plane struck.

.

From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times