Firefighter
Bobby McPadden
Engine 23

A Memorial Service was held on September 29th.
St. Aedans Church
23 Reld Drive, Pearl River

FDNY OFFICIAL INFORMATION ON FIREFIGHTER McPADDEN

Robert William McPadden

Firefighter Robert William McPadden was doing what he loved on Sept. 11 when he rushed into the World Trade Center after the Twin Towers were struck by hijacked commercial jets.

That was one person's recollection yesterday of McPadden, a 30-year-old New York City firefighter from Pearl River, who on Oct. 11 was to celebrate his third wedding anniversary with wife, Kate.

More than 1,000 relatives, friends, and fellow firefighters packed St. Aedan's Church in Pearl River at noon for a Mass of the Resurrection for McPadden, one of more than 6,000 people missing and presumed dead in the collapse of the Twin Towers.

It was a sense of duty that drove McPadden into a building that thousands were fleeing, recalled his brother, Michael, 33, an Orangetown police officer.

"Not because of money or medals or anything like that," McPadden said of the younger brother he admired.

"Bob was always my hero," McPadden told those assembled. "When I was little and we talked at night before going to sleep ... He was a hero when he followed in our father's footsteps to the fire department."

Their father, Michael, died about nine years ago, relatives said.

People gathered outside before the Mass. A long line of firefighters dressed in blue stretched in front of the church. The ladders of two firetrucks, one from Pearl River and another from Nanuet, formed an arch with the American flag flying between them high in the wind.

The crowd quietly awaited the arrival of the immediate family — including his mother, Judy, and sisters, Catherine, Annemarie and Elizabeth — in a procession of Orangetown police cars, a Haverstraw firetruck, and five bagpipers.

Inside, a shiny black-and-green firefighter's helmet was displayed before the altar on a small table covered with white lace.

The Rev. John J. O'Hara of St. Teresa's Church on Staten Island and a cousin of Kate McPadden, told of six weeks ago when Robert McPadden led a tour of children through his firehouse, Engine 23 in Manhattan.

The children wore T-shirts imprinted with the words: "Jesus to the Rescue." They gave one to McPadden.

"He rescues you, He rescues me," O'Hara said. "You and I need some rescuing now. Jesus, who took Bob by the hand, wants to take us by the hand, too. ... To give us the courage and power we need to move forward."