He Loved His Family and the Law

By Paul Moses | STAFF WRITER

September 17, 2001

Walter G. Hynes, a New York Fire Department captain and attorney who was well-known in the Rockaways, was among the many firefighers from his neighborhood who died in the World Trade Center collapse. He was 46.

"He loved having his family around," his brother-in-law, Fire Lt. Tom Farragher, said yesterday.

Farragher recalled him as a popular figure in the community, who enjoyed taking his three daughters each year to Disney World.

"He was very social. He just loved life."

Farragher said Hynes, a Belle Harbor resident who first moved to the Rockaways when he was 14, died when Tower Two collapsed Tuesday.

Hynes, who worked in Ladder Co. 13 on the Upper East Side, got his law degree by taking evening classes at St. John's University.

When neighborhood residents had a legal problem, they sought him out first and often got advice for free, Farragher said, adding, "He loved helping people."

Hynes joined the fire department in 1979, working as a firefighter and then a lieutenant in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood before his promotion to captain.

He was a member of the Holy Name Society, the Emerald Society and the Knights of Columbus.

Survivors include his wife, Veronica; his children, Caitlin, 12, Kerry, 11, and Deirdre, 8; his mother, Margaret, of Rockaway Beach; and his sister, Patricia Hynes, of Belle Harbor.

A wake is to be held at the Denis S. O'Connor Funeral Home on Beach Channel Drive in Rockaway Beach today and tomorrow, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

A funeral mass is to be held at St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church in Belle Harbor at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, followed by burial at St. Charles Cemetery in Pinelawn.