2,996 - Ronald Orsini - victim of 9/11 Attacks

As my eyes fell on the hand placed tenderly on Ronald Orsini's arm and looked into the smiling, happy eyes of his wife, Arlene, my heart broke with the implication of loss - of the hole in her life and her daughter's. Arlene wears a holiday sweater, festooned with snowflakes and a winter scene. Perhaps this picture was taken during the Christmas holiday. I see an aluminum foil covered casserole on her stove and tupper ware containers behind Ron. They were obviously happy and looking forward to the joys of the holiday and as I read below, toward a future that held the promise of grandchilden. On this anniversary of the tragedy of September 11, 2001, I send a ripple through cybersapce that says his name, that says that he was, and that he was loved and will be forever remembered among the victims of that day of unthinkable pain. His grandson Zachary was born Sept.26, 2001. Zachary will never know the reassruing presence of his grandfather or learn how to swing a golf club at his side.

Ronald Orsini
Man misses grandson's birth

Nov. 28, 2001

Ron Orsini groused about the upcoming birth of his first grandchild. Don't expect him to cancel his golf outings to babysit, he kept telling his wife Arlene.But neither his wife nor his only daughter paid much attention to Orsini's bluster.The man who vowed never to babysit had already bought a crib and video monitoring equipment for when his grandson stayed at his Hillsdale, N.J., home. Zachary Matthew Ronald Pandolfi was born on Sept. 26.Zachary's maternal grandfather died Sept. 11 when a hijacked airliner crashed into the World Trade Center. Orsini, 59, worked as a broker for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the north tower.Arlene, Orsini's wife for 34 years, says her athletic husband would have made a great grandfather."We joked that he would probably have little golf clubs made," she said, "when the baby was born."

--Fred Carroll (Daily Press)

Many people knew that he loved to dance, but not many were aware that he had won many dancing competitions as a boy, or that he had studied ballet.
It's no surprise that the dancing was a surprise to many of his friends. Arlene Orsini, his wife of nearly 30 years, describes him as being "kind of klutzy" when not dancing. "I used to say to him, what would you be like if you hadn't danced ballet."
Ronald Orsini's greatest talent, in his wife's eyes, was his unrelenting optimism. "I'm such a pessimist," she said, "and he would always turn to me and say: `Stop worrying about it. It's not that important.' He just amazed me."

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on Sunday, April 7, 2002.