We Remember

Robert Frank Tipaldi

Life was just beginning for Robert Frank Tipaldi. In 2001 he was 25 years old and planned to marry the girl he loved the next year. He had a promising career as an assistant trader at Cantor Fitzgerald. He loved the excitement and the intensity of trading. He had just bought a summer home on the Jersey coast where he loved entertaining family and friends.

He loved to be out and doing things—skydiving, riding motorcycles, playing ice hockey—almost as much as he loved staying in and entertaining his family and friends. He loved bringing people together for barbecues, and swimming, and he had plans to buy a boat for entertaining as well. He had planned to have his three grandparents over the weekend after September 11th.

Family and friends describe Robert as being “magnetic” and “charismatic.” He was small of stature—only 5’3”, but had a large, unforgettable presence. Everyone he met became his friend. Robert was kind-hearted. When his grandfather died, Robert moved in with his grandmother so she wouldn’t have to be alone.

Robert grew up in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, New York. He retained friends from those early childhood days into adulthood. Two of them, Jude Safi, 25 and Richard Caggiano, 25, were also killed on September 11th. Robert had helped both of his friends secure positions at Cantor Fitzgerald.

After the planes hit Tower Two of the World Trade Center, Robert called his mother. He told her that he loved her and to tell everybody he loved them, too.

Sources: The New York Times
Newsday.com