Neil & his younger brother
Young Neil and grandpa Paul
Getting ready for baseball practice
Graduation day with friends
Neil dancing with Mom
Neil and Mom
Holiday Dinner with love ones
Neil and Anne
Playing Polo
Neil and family
Larry Toto's Wedding
Neil at his friends wedding
A great friend
Neil with close friends and family
Neil with close friends and family
Enjoying a party with close friends and family
View from Brooklyn
Neil with friends
Neil with close friends and family
Neil with close friends
Night out with friends
Spending time with loved ones
Huge Yankee Fan
Neil and his Mom
Neil celebrating a friends wedding
A wonderful Son and Friend
Lunch with friends
Celebrating with friends and family
Neil with close friends and family
Neil with close friends and family
Neil with close friends and family
Holiday dinner with family
Remembering Neil
Neil and fellow Cantor Fitzgerald coworkers
Poem for Neil
Remembering Neil
Letter to Neil from Larry Toto
Poem for Neil
Letter to Neil
Neil's Funeral plaque
Remembering Neil
Neil Cooking
Neil Cooking
Wonderful Son and friend
Wonderful Son and friend
A wonderful Son and friend
A wonderful Son
Remember Neil
Remember Neil
Neil's personal items
Neil's personal items
Neil's personal items
Neil's personal items
Neil's personal items
In Memory of Neil
In Memory of Neil
In Memory of Neil
Staten Island 9/11 Postcards Memorial
Empty Sky: NJ State 9/11 Memorial
Hoboken Island
Queen Elizabeth II September 11 Memorial Garden
Conseleya 9/11 Memorial
Dewitt 9/11 Memorial
Montclair State University 9/11 Memorial
East Newark 9/11 Memorial
Fair Haven 9/11 Memorial
A bond broker for Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm that occupied some of the highest floors in the building and lost hundreds of its employees, Mr. Dollard was working on the 104th floor of Tower 1 when the first plane hit.
He had a passion for dining in fine Manhattan restaurants and entertaining friends at his home. He was a gourmet cook who liked to try new recipes, and was beginning an impressive wine collection.
To balance his love for food, the 6-foot-1-inch Mr. Dollard spent much of his leisure time exercising at a gym near his home. His build was broad and he always looked healthy.
"He had a gorgeous smile, a big smile," Mrs. Fajardo said. "His signature look was his baseball hat and his cup of coffee."
His friends and family remember his wry and witty sense of humor and how he would leave them doubled over with laughter. But they say he did have a more serious, thoughtful side.
New York Times Portraits of Grief
His family's memories of Neil M. Dollard frequently involve a telephone. There were the calls Mr. Dollard made to his mother, Helen, from his kitchen ("How do you debeard a mussel?") and to his sister Megan ("I'm working with purple basil. Have you ever made purple pesto?") and the endless conversations on the special line that connected him to his brother Peter's office; they spoke "maybe 45 times a day" by Peter Dollard's count.
After high school, Neil Dollard, who was 28, headed straight from Staten Island to Cantor Fitzgerald, signing on as a "bluecoat" who emptied wastebaskets, and working his way up to bond broker. He embraced the lifestyle, building a wardrobe of natty suits and taking on the vocabulary of Wall Street: "waving in" bottles of wine at dinner, for example, to indulge clients. He bought a condominium in Hoboken, N.J., and had a happy relationship with his girlfriend, Kristin Ledzion. They planned to join other family members vacationing in Chiavari, on the coast of Italy, in the middle of September.
He called them there on Sept. 10. "He spoke to all of us, and he told me how much he was looking forward to the trip," his brother said. "He said that when he got there, we were going to wave everything in."
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