JOSEPH AMATUCCIO: From Tollbooths
to Towers
Joseph
Amatuccio was hired by the Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey as a toll collector right out of high school.
For some people, that might be a dead-end job. For him it
was only a beginning. Over the years, Mr. Amatuccio, 41,
moved from toll collecting to carpentry and from there to
management. He used the agency's education plan to get an
undergraduate degree in business management, taking
classes at night, and was 18 months from a master's
degree at Baruch College.
As a manager of operations and maintenance at the
World Trade Center, he was on the phone every weekend
from his home in Ozone Park, Queens, making sure that
things were being done right, that subordinates were
treating his beloved towers just so. "I'd argue with him,
`What do you think, you're going to own those buildings?'
" said his wife, Debra.
Mr. Amatuccio was seen on the street outside the twin
towers at one point on the morning of Sept. 11. Someone
yelled, "Let's run!" Ms. Amatuccio was later told. He ran
back in.
.