A Devoted Dad, A Sporting Guy

By Barbara J. Durkin | STAFF WRITER

September 19, 2001

David Leistman was a devoted father and a dedicated coach, and with his two children - Brian, 13, and Katie, 12 - he was able to combine his two passions.

Leistman, of Garden City, coached the boys and the girls lacrosse teams that his children played on with a zest for the sport that began when he was a child himself.

"He was always totally devoted to his children," said his brother, Donald Leistman. "These kids have been playing one sport or another practically since they've been able to walk, and maybe even before. He was constantly out with them. I would say no travel tournament was too far, no practice was too mundane."

On Sept. 11, the Leistman children lost both a father and a coach. The father who never left the house without kissing each of them goodbye was at his job for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center on the day that terrorists flew two planes into the Twin Towers.

Leistman, 43, had been a bond trader and partner at the firm, which was devastated in the attack. A survivor of the 1993 bombing of the trade center, he had worked there for about a dozen years, said Donald Leistman, 45, a tax attorney in Rockville Centre.

"He was always at his desk earlier than he had to be," Donald Leistman said.

David Leistman grew up in Stewart Manor, where he attended Sewanhaka High School and played football, basketball and, of course, lacrosse.

"The school was renowned for its lacrosse program," said Donald Leistman. His brother went on to Adelphi University, where, as a lacrosse midfielder, he was named All-American multiple times and played on the 1979 team that won the Division II National Lacrosse Championship.

Leistman also met his wife, Maryclair, at Adelphi, and the couple married in 1983. Over the years, he coached not only lacrosse, but also Thunder Football.

"He was extremely giving of himself," Donald Leistman said.

A memorial service will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at St. Anne's Roman Catholic Church, 35 Dartmouth St., Garden City. The family will receive friends immediately following at Adelphi University Alumni House, 154 Cambridge Ave., Garden City. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made in David Leistman's name to the Long Island Metropolitan Lacrosse Foundation, 148 Hampton Rd., Garden City, N.Y. 11530.