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In Remembrance
Age:
44
Place of Residence:
Cranford, NJ
Location on 9/11:
Two WTC
Occupation:
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods | Senior Vice President Research
Biography:

Dean P. Eberling of Cranford certainly knew "the Street," having worked as an analyst at such behemoths as Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Prudential Securities and Salomon Smith Barney. Always fun-loving, however, he shifted gears on weekends and took his passion off-road.

"He was the Mountain Bike King," Amy Eberling said of her husband, a member of both the National Off-Road Bicycle Association and the International Mountain Bicycling Association.

Mr. Eberling took his bike as far as Maryland and Vermont to compete in day and weekend events. He rode on Mount Snow in Vermont in August, and competed in a 24-hour mountain-biking event at Allamuchy State Park Sept. 8 and 9.

Mr. Eberling, 44, was a securities analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods with an office on the 58th floor of Two World Trade Center.

On Sept. 11, he was trapped in an elevator with a group of colleagues after their building was struck by a hijacked airliner, and he waited for two women to crawl out a crack between the car doors before making any attempt to escape himself.

His chance would never come.

As firefighters attempted to cut open the door with a chainsaw, the building collapsed.

"My kids asked why didn't he save himself?" his wife said. "That was his nature, to look out for others. He was always protective, even in high school and grammar school, and would not have done anything differently."

The Eberlings were friends in school, but did not begin dating until he was a student at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison and she at Seton Hall University. They married shortly after college, and have two daughters, Cori, 13, and Lauren, 10.

Mr. Eberling earned his master of business administration at Seton Hall before beginning a Wall Street career that saw him named a runner-up in the 1997 Institutional Investor survey of analysts from brokerage and asset management firms. He placed third in The Wall Street Journal's "Best on the Street" analyst survey for 2000.

Mr. Eberling was a prankster, his wife said.

"He would always ask me if I wanted to tease someone, and then call them up on the phone. I'm not one for pranks, and would say don't do that. But he was always the prankster."

Amy Eberling recalled having to dig her diamond engagement ring out of a box of cookies. They were married for nearly 20 years.

In addition to his wife and children, Mr. Eberling is survived by his brother, Charles, and sister, Karen Aurand, both of Cranford. A memorial service will be held Oct. 24 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Westfield, 414 East Broad St.

Profile by Jason Jett published in THE STAR-LEDGER.