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A tried and true Jets fan who braved all sorts of weather, 33-year-old Steven Strobert would annually receive a letter in the mail offering him an upgrade on his season tickets. And every year, he would turn it down.
"He had terrible seats," said his godfather, John Zaccardi, 50, of Wyckoff, who accompanied him to games. "Just three rows behind us and then came the sky. But he didn't care. He loved the characters in that section, like an older lady we called 'grandma.' He was the most loving human being I have ever met in my life."
A broker with the bond trading company Cantor Fitzgerald, Mr. Strobert was likely in his offices on the 105th floor of One World Trade Center during last week's attack, his family said.
About 20 minutes before the planes struck the buildings, he called his wife, Tara, as he typically did, to say hello and to let her know he arrived OK.
Mr. Strobert was a Secaucus native who recently moved to Ridgewood. He graduated from Boston University and worked for Cantor Fitzgerald for 11 years.
During the 1993 bombing at the building, he helped escort a pregnant woman down 100 flights of stairs to safety. That was just him, friends say, always looking out for others.
He loved challenges. As chair of his high school reunion committee, he found every single classmate, said Christopher Pak, 34, a good friend since grammar school.
"He was a terrific personality and loved getting friends together. He was tremendously outgoing," said his mother, Barbara, noting that her son also rooted fervently for the Mets and was an avid golfer who belonged to the Essex Fells Country Club.
"I remember when we would pass people on the street asking for money and he would always say to me, 'Let's give a couple of dollars,'" Pak, of Tinton Falls, said.
Mr. Strobert was also known for the elaborate tail-gate parties he would throw in the parking lot of Giants Stadium to mark the opening of the college football season, the Kickoff Classic. A few weeks ago, he recruited his father, Frank, of Secaucus, to prepare foods like grilled shrimp and prime rib for more than two dozen of his friends.
He always cherished spending quality time with his wife and the couple's 20-month-old son, Frank. A trip to Martha's Vineyard, several weekends at the Jersey Shore, barbeques with friends and sunny afternoons in his parents' backyard pool were among the highlights of his summer, which he recently decided was his best ever.
"He was just a happy-go-lucky guy," said his childhood friend, Patrick Taylor, 33, of Secaucus.
Profile by Angela Stewart published in THE STAR-LEDGER
New York Times Portraits of Grief
The woman was pregnant and frightened. It was during the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Steven Strobert, a hefty six-foot bond broker for Cantor Fitzgerald, put one big arm around her and guided her down a hundred flights of stairs. "He was so modest, he never really told me much," recalled his wife Tara. "I didn't know about it till later. His mother brought it up. He just said, `Yeah.' "
They met on St. Patrick's Day 1999 at the Plank Road Inn in his hometown of Secaucus, N.J. "I just walked up to him and announced, `Everybody, I found my husband,' " she recalls. "He just turned around and laughed." After dinner a week later, he kissed her good night on the cheek. "Wow!" she thought. "He's the greatest guy I've ever met."
Mr. Strobert, 33, married her in October 2000, and they bought a house in Ridgewood, N.J. and had a son, Frankie. "He would come home with a bottle of wine or flowers and was very generous with his time," she recalls. "We were together a very short time, but we lived a very full life in two and a half years."
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