Families remember those lost in Trade Center attack

   Two area residents — a Monroe man and a Jamesburg man — and the son of a Rossmoor resident, all missing since the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, have brought the tragedy of the disaster to the doorsteps of township and borough homes.

By: Al Wicklund and Steve Rauscher
   Two area residents — a Monroe man and a Jamesburg man — and the son of a Rossmoor resident, all missing since the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, have brought the tragedy of the disaster to the doorsteps of township and borough homes.
   Among the 5,400 still listed as missing are Joseph M. Giaccone of Monroe and James T. Samuel of Jamesburg. William F. Fallon, Jr., of Rocky Hill, the son of Margaret Fallon of Rossmoor, has been confirmed as dead.
   Following are stories on Mr. Giaccone, Mr. Samuels and Mr. Fallon.

Joseph M. Giaccone

   Joseph M. Giaccone of Danya Drive is being remembered this week as an unpretentious, generous and, most of all, happy man.
   Mr. Giaccone, 43, a vice president with Cantor Fitzgerald, a major financial trading firm, has been missing since Sept. 11 when a terrorist-controlled plane crashed into Tower No. 1 of the World Trade Center.
   Mr. Giaccone was working in his company’s offices on the 103rd floor of the building when the plane hit at 8:48 a.m.
   "On that morning, he called me about 8 o’clock. We chatted for a while. He said he’d call me again later. That was the last time we spoke," his wife, Sondra Giaccone, said earlier this week.
   Ms. Giaccone said it wasn’t unusual for her and her husband to call each other frequently during the day.
   Mr. Giaccone had a cell phone; Ms. Giaccone tried to reach him after the terrorist attack with no success, her brother Keith Seiden said.
   "One of the neighbors called Joe’s cell phone periodically all through the day and got no response. That night, there were 10 to 15 friends at the house using their personal cell phones calling hospitals in and around New York City hoping to find him," he said.
   Mr. Seiden, who at one time worked for his brother-in-law, said Mr. Giaccone was a quiet, patient man in a stressful field of finance where those qualities are rare.
   "Joe was a hard worker and, most importantly, he was not a self-promoter," Mr. Seiden said.
   The Giaccones celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary in February, the same month they took title to their dream house in the Ridgewood Estates development off Half Acre Road.
   "We lived for 12 years in a place in Beaver Brook Run in Jamesburg before moving here. We were happy in Beaver Brook, but we wanted our dream house.
   "Joe was a city boy who looked forward to cutting his own grass. He bought a riding mower.
   "He also loved to cook. He wanted ‘his stove’ in the kitchen," Ms. Giaccone said.
   She said her husband was a man who could be content involved in a variety of different activities.
   "He liked good things — from quality shoes to good wine — but he also was happy in his back yard, in a T-shirt drinking a beer with his friends," she said.
   Ms. Giaccone said her husband enjoyed yard work and gardening as a release from stress.
   "We were like kids with this house. We were here every chance we had when it was being built. We used to ‘break in’ at night just to walk around and make plans for what we wanted to do with it. He put tile down for part of the kitchen floor."
   Ms. Giaccone said she and Joe were living in Queens when they met through a mutual friend.
   "Our friend told me he was going to call. From that first telephone call, I felt comfortable with him. I knew within a week we were going to be married. He didn’t know until later, but I had no doubts," she said.
   Ms. Giaccone said her friend almost didn’t introduce them because she believed they were too different.
   "It wasn’t just size (she’s a foot shorter than his height of 6 feet). There were so many times when we’d start out with ideas or opinions far apart, but usually we’d end up in the same place," she said.
   Ms. Giaccone is concerned about their children. Her daughter Alex, 14, has just started at Monroe Township High School, while son Max, 10, is going to Brookside School.
   "That boy adores his father, and my daughter is so much like my husband. I think she knows when I look at her I see so much of him," she said.
   Ms. Giaccone said she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of sympathy and offers of help from friends and neighbors.
   "People stopped by and called with messages of hope the day of the disaster. The next night, a Wednesday, we had about 30 family members and old and new friends here. Everyone was looking for ways to help. We heard from one man who said he’d help with whatever the family needed, including paying the mortgage," she said.
   Ms. Giaccone looked about at the kitchen and adjacent area.
   "He took such pride in this house, was so involved in it. He’s everywhere in this place.
   "We married young. Much of my life was with him. When I think of him I feel warm.
   "I knew it early, Joe is a sweet, sweet man,’ " Ms. Giaccone said.
Al Wicklund
James T. Samuel Jr.

James T. Samuel Jr., 29, formerly of Oakland Road, has been living in Hoboken within sight of the towers of the World Trade Center where he worked and where he was on Sept. 11 when a plane highjacked by terrorists crashed into the building. Mr. Samuel has been listed as missing since the crash.
   He is the son of James and Linda Samuel who reside on Oakland Road.
   "He lived right across the river from work. It was a 10-minute trip to the office," his father, James Sr., said Thursday.
   Mr. Samuel Sr. said his son worked for Carr Futures.
   "Jim worked in commodities. He had his office in Tower No. 1 on the 92nd floor," Mr. Samuel said.
   Mr. Samuel said Hoboken was the right match for his son.
   "It’s a yuppie town with a lot young people on the way up. It’s a lively town. There are a lot of outdoor cafes. It’s a nice town. He was happy there.
   Mr. Samuel Sr. said Jim worked for two years for Carr, but had worked in the World Trade Center for another company before that.
   "He was at the trade center for about four or five years," he said.
   Mr. Samuel said he heard about a plane crashing into Tower One when his son-in-law, Michael Agresto, a golf professional at the Fox Hollow Country Club in Branchburg Township, Somerset County, called him and told him to turn on the television set, the tower had been hit by a plane.
   "Jimmy was a good kid. He was never in trouble. He enjoyed life. He particularly liked to travel," Mr. Samuel Sr. said.
   He said an added sad part of the terrible disaster is that Jim’s company was a young person’s company.
   "They were all young, mostly in their twenties and their early thirties. I believe the oldest in the office was 36 or 37 years old," he said.
   Mr. and Mrs. Samuel have a daughter, Jennifer, who lives in Sayreville.
   The family lived in South River when Jim was born. They moved to Jamesburg when he was 10.
   He went through the Jamesburg schools and graduated from Monroe Township High School and from West Virginia University.
Al Wicklund
William F. Fallon Jr.

   Knowing Bill, he was probably helping somebody.
   That is what friends and family of William F. Fallon Jr. — longtime Rocky Hill resident, former borough councilman and one of the victims of last week’s terrorist attack on the World Trade Center — have been saying since Saturday evening when his death was confirmed.
   "It’s our suspicion that he went back to help somebody," neighbor Jane Oakley said. "That’s the kind of guy he was."
   Mr. Fallon, whose mother Margaret lives in Rossmoor, worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, on the 62nd floor of 1 World Trade Center. He called his wife, Brenda, minutes after the first hijacked jet plowed into the tower, to tell her he was OK.
   "Brenda talked to him after the plane hit, and he seemed very calm and composed," said sister-in-law Suzann Fallon. "He was intent on seeing what they had to do to get everybody out."
   Most of the employees on Mr. Fallon’s floor escaped, said Port Authority officials. Mr. Fallon did not.
   "We were so hopeful, we really were," said his sister-in-law. "He was a very take-charge kind of person. He would have been helping others, and if there was a way to survive, he would have been working on that."
   Mr. Fallon’s survivors — his wife, 18-year-old son Christopher, his mother, three brothers and a sister — are concentrating now not on finding him but on remembering him.
   "Bill had a tremendous sense of humor, and that’s helped us try to keep ours," Ms. Fallon said.
   Born in Yonkers, N.Y., Mr. Fallon grew up in Metuchen. After graduating from Villanova University in 1970, he joined the Navy, serving in the Mediterranean Sea.
   He left the Navy and went to work for international steamship company Farrell Lines in the mid-1970s, around the same time he and Brenda were married. His work as a company representative brought him to West Africa and Australia during the decade he worked at Farrell Lines.
   In 1986, Mr. Fallon’s expertise in maritime shipping landed him a job with the Port Authority, just before the Fallons moved to Rocky Hill.
   "Bill was a big part of this community," said Mayor Brian Nolan, who served with Mr. Fallon on the Borough Council in the late 1980s. "He was always a very caring person. Whenever you needed some help, you could always reach out to Bill."
   Ms. Oakley recalled an incident this July when a tree fell on a vacationing neighbor’s garage.
   "Bill didn’t try to call them to let them know something was wrong or anything," she said. "He just came over and said, ‘Come on, let’s get it down.’ That’s the kind of person he was."
   Mr. Fallon’s kindness was reflected in another story, Ms. Oakley said. During the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, Mr. Fallon and a co-worker carried a man in a wheelchair down more than 60 flights of stairs.
   "He wasn’t one of those people who just ran for their lives," she said.
   For friends and family, it appears Mr. Fallon did not run for his life on Sept. 11, either.
   "He would have been helping someone," Suzann Fallon said. "He was calm, brave and patriotic. He was proud to have been in the Navy, and I think he would have been proud to see all those flags flying."
Steve Rauscher