Alan Kleinberg had taken another job for awhile, but something about his old one, at the bond house Cantor Fitzgerald, called him back.

Perhaps it was the good company of his colleagues there. In recent days his co-workers have told Mr. Kleinberg's family some of his "Alanisms." That is what the office called the jokes and one-liners he would tell. His good humor was part of what made the office a great place to work, his colleagues said.

Mr. Kleinberg had only recently returned to the office, and was days away from transferring to Cantor Fitzgerald's New Jersey offices in Shrewsbury.

But on Sept. 11, the 39-year-old securities trader reported as usual to the firm's 104th floor office in the World Trade Center. He never made his usual call home to his wife, Mindy. His tower took the first hit in the terror attack and Mr. Kleinberg, along with many members of the firm, is unaccounted for.

His family has searched for him in all the hospitals. They have pasted his picture all over Lower Manhattan -- hundreds of copies of a photo meant for a happier purpose -- Mr. Kleinberg's 3-year-old son, Sam, needed a picture of Daddy to show at preschool. He also has two other children, Lauren, 7, and Jacob, 9.

Mr. Kleinberg was a man who limited outside interests to concentrate on his family, his mother, Vicki Lerner Shoemaker said. Because Jacob loved to skate, Mr. Kleinberg recently began appearing at town meetings in East Brunswick, to ask for a public skating park for the kids.

"He hated the politics, but he was quite good at speaking," said his mother.

Like so many other families, the grief is made worse because of the uncertainty, the need to fill out missing person's forms, to hand over personal items for DNA comparison, and the wait for a phone call from the police. "And this is a family that has never had to grieve before," Shoemaker said.

In addition to his mother, wife and children, Mr. Kleinberg is survived by his father, Stanley, of East Brunswick; step-father, Lyle Shoemaker of South Brunswick; sisters, Debbie Foxx of Montgomery, Marla Goodreau of Manhattan, and Marci Bandelli of Brooklyn; grandparents, Max and Florence Lerner of Monroe, in-laws, Stanley and Gail Rubin of East Brunswick, and brother-in-law and sister in law, Peter and Jill Sullivan. He has six nieces and nephews.

Mr. Kleinberg graduated from John P. Stevens High School in Edison and then went to the University of Delaware.

A memorial service will be held tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. at the East Brunswick Jewish Center, 511 Ryders Lane, East Brunswick.

Profile by Joan Whitlow published in THE STAR-LEDGER.