Marsh Memorial Dedication

Robert "Bob" Kennedy was a hard worker with a good sense of humor, whose idea of a good time was a vacation with his family, especially when it included golf. When he began working for Marsh & McLennan 22 years ago, the company was located in midtown Manhattan. He moved to the firm's World Trade Center offices three years ago, and, according to his wife, the former Maureen Carroll, loved his office on the 100th floor of Tower 1.

"He loved the view. He looked out toward Jersey and could see Pennsylvania on a clear day. He could look down on helicopters and could see the ferries crossing from Jersey. It was amazing how much detail you could see from that height." When the couple came to Staten Island to visit her mother he would tease his wife, saying, "Look. I left my lights on again."

The 55-year-old Westerleigh native was always at his desk early. He would follow up his early morning kiss goodbye before catching the 5 a.m. bus with a phone call to his wife from his office.

On the morning of Sept. 11, the couple played a little "telephone tag" before connecting around 8:15. The last contact is some comfort to Mrs. Kennedy, since her husband has been missing since the attack on the Trade Center that day.

The Toms River, N.J., couple recently celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary with their two daughters and their husbands. The family spent the weekend in Morris County, N.J., where their daughters live. They went out to dinner; the "girls" went to a play and the "guys" played golf.

Although it was a special weekend because of the anniversary, it was not unusual for the family to celebrate that way. Vacations together were common. A favorite vacation spot was the Outer Banks in North Carolina where swimming, golf and going out were combined with spending a lot of time together. The family would also visit the casinos in Atlantic City.

"As long as we were together, that was what was important," said Mrs. Kennedy, "We always had a lot of laughs."

His daughters saw their father as their "knight in shining armor" who was always there for them. He could "fix anything," whether on the spot or over the phone. "One of the hardest things now is seeing the pain in their faces," said Mrs. Kennedy.

Mr. Kennedy moved to Dongan Hills in 1969 when the couple married. They moved to Brick, N.J., in 1974, and to Toms River in 1980.

The 1963 Port Richmond High School graduate was drafted into the Army in 1965. He went to Vietnam in 1966, where he served as an military policeman. He returned in June 1967 and finished his tour of duty, spending six months at Fort Riley, Kan.

When Mr. Kennedy returned from the Vietnam War, he met his wife-to-be and re-entered the business world, working at a brokerage firm downtown and then at the midtown law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison. He joined Marsh & McLennan in the late 1970s and worked his way up to senior vice president. One of his duties there was keeping the licensing of brokers current. He attended the former Staten Island Community College, Sunnyside, in the late 1960s.

For Mr. Kennedy, golf was a lifetime sport, with an interruption only when his daughters were babies. Fishing was also a pastime he enjoyed, and he had recently mentioned returning to the sport.