College graduation photo of Donald Havlish, Jr.
High school photo of Donald Havlish, Jr.
Don in the 70's
Don with daughter Michaela on Captiva Island, Florida
Don with his sister, Susan holding his daughter Michaela
Donald with Fiona and Michaela
Photograph of Don and his wife Fiona just after they were married in Bermuda.
Michaela's 1st birthday - Michaela, Don, Sean, Meredith (friend) and Lea
Michaela's Christening
Don & Dad "Best Friends"... and golf buddies
Family on Hilton Head
Michaela
Michaela & Dad
Michaela, Fiona & policemen at Don's memorial at Lower Makefield in Yardley, PA
Daughter Michaela, happy as ever
Don with his daughter Michaela
Don with his best friend Dan Detmer on Captiva Island, Florida
Donald George Havlish, Jr. with Susan (sister), Bill (brother), Donald, Sr. (father), Alma (mother) on parent's 50th wedding anniversary
"The Circle of Life" - Don with daughter Michaela right after she was born, Lower Buck's Hospital in Yardley, PA
Don with Aunt Sue and daughter Michaela
Don's step children, Sean Bitterman, Lea Bitterman holding his daughter Michaela
Don with his daughter Michaela on beach in Hilton Head, South Carolina
Don is pictured with his daughter, Michaela in November of 2000
Don's daughter, Michaela
Don with the family and Dad
Michaela & Don - "She completed his life."
Don & Dad working on a little project - "Best Friends"
Michaela playing in the leaves with her Dad
Michaela with Dad's briefcase
Don and the family at Sean's Pennsbury High School Graduation
Don, Michaela, and Grandpa
Disney Vacation
Michaela & her Dad at Shadybrook Farm
Michaela's First Day of School
Goofy & Michaela at Disney World
Don and his daughter Michaela
Wedding picture - Aug 9, 1993
Don with his wife Fiona, just celebrated last anniversary on Captiva Island, Florida August 2001
Wedding
Don and his wife Fiona after their wedding
Mass Card from St. Patrick's Cathedral, NYC
Mass Card from St. Patrick's Cathedral, NYC
Missing Poster
Business Card
Personal Memorial Service Program
Poem found outside of St. Pauls hanging on wraught iron fence.
Death Certificate
On top is a note from wife Fiona to minister & below is one of Don's poems.
Poem written by Don
Don's sonnet
"In Memory of Donald George Havlish, Jr."
"In Memory of Donald George Havlish, Jr."
"In Memory of Donald George Havlish, Jr."
"In Memory of Donald George Havlish, Jr."
Aon Memorial Program
Aon Memorial Program
Aon Memorial Program
Aon Memorial Program
Aon Memorial Program Cover
Personal Memorial Service Program in Yardley, PA
Personal Memorial Service Program in Yardley, PA
Personal Memorial Service Program in Yardley, PA
Personal Memorial Service Program in Yardley, PA
Conseleya 9/11 Memorial
Dewitt 9/11 Memorial
Montclair State University 9/11 Memorial
East Newark 9/11 Memorial
Fair Haven 9/11 Memorial
Freehold Township 9/11 Living Memorial Tree Grove
Crescent Beach Park - Flagpole/Memorial for 9/11 Victims
Garrison Elementary School American Patriot Garden
Keansburg Beach Front Memorial
The day Michaela Havlish started preschool was going to be a very big deal. She couldn't wait for her father to come home from work that night so she could tell him all about it.
Michaela's first day of school was Sept. 11, and her father never came home. Donald G. Havlish Jr., 53, a senior vice president of Aon Consulting, was among the thousands killed in the World Trade Center attack.
That first night, Fiona Havlish told Michaela that "Daddy's building was in an accident, a big accident, and nobody knows where Daddy is." Later, she changed the explanation to "he's up in heaven, guarding us."
The couple married in 1993 after a five-year courtship. Don was "a great stepdad" to Fiona's two children, now 18 and 20. Yet at nearly 50, he never expected to have another shot at parenthood. He called Michaela, who will turn 4 on Oct. 17, "my little miracle," Fiona recalled.
After Michaela was born, he made it a point to ask business associates about their families, "encouraging them to focus on what's important." Havlish also stopped taking overnight business trips.
He had a law degree from Duquesne University but made his living as "a broker of insurance," arranging corporate benefit packages. The commute from his home in Yardley, Pa., to the World Trade Center took up to 90 minutes each way, but he made it a point to get home by 7 p.m. so he could have the evening with his family.
Since Sept. 11, Fiona hasn't been back to her job as a visiting nurse. She holds her days together by making lists of everything that needs to be accomplished. Her loss drags at her like an undertow, yet she's determined to keep her husband's memory alive for their daughter--and herself.
"I was very lucky," Fiona says. "I got to fall in love at first sight, and I got to stay in love the whole time."
Profile courtesy of THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
New York Times Portraits of Grief
As love stories go, the tale of Fiona and Donald G. Havlish Jr., well, it almost never happened.
While a mutual friend pleaded for months with Mrs. Havlish to meet her future husband, a senior vice president at Aon , she resisted, convinced, though she had never seen him, that the relationship would never work. "Guys do not like women with two kids," Mrs. Havlish told the friend.
But the friend persisted, cleverly arranging a meeting of the two at a corporate picnic. Mr. Havlish was the tall, dark-haired stranger with the quick laugh and the bouquet of spring flowers. "I just fell in love with his sense of humor," Mrs. Havlish said. Two months later, the two were engaged. They married a year and half later, on a beach in Bermuda, at sunset. Mrs. Havlish's children became his children, soon joined by a daughter of their own.
It is a story, one of many that Mrs. Havlish is saving for Michaela, 4, whose smile would send her 53-year-old father racing home to Yardley, Pa. "I tell her that Daddy is still watching over us, that he'll always love her."
Add new Guest Book entry