Losses Run Deep At Port Authority

By Sandra Peddie | STAFF WRITER

September 13, 2001

Neil D. Levin is among 150 missing. (AP Photo)

Neil D. Levin, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was among the 150 missing at the agency yesterday.

"Our hearts go out to those families," said Ernesto Butcher, chief operating officer of the Port Authority. "These are people we have worked with, some of us for many years, and are dear to us."

Butcher said 42 of the missing were police officers. Roughly 2,000 people worked in the agency on 14 floors in Tower One, which was the first one hit by aircraft. Levin's office was on the 68th floor. Butcher did not release names, but Levin's mother, Gloria Levin, confirmed late yesterday that he was missing.

Gov. George Pataki named Levin, 46, to the $185,000-a-year post March 30. He succeeded Robert E. Boyle, who resigned last December. Levin previously had served as state banking superintendent and state insurance superintendent. A longtime Republican, he was close to both Pataki and former senator Alfonse D'Amato.

Through a spokeswoman, D'Amato said he was "too emotional" to talk, but issued a statement extolling Levin's "total commitment, dedication and enthusiasm for his life and work." He called him a trusted and a valued friend, and added, "More than that, he is a part of my family. And my heart goes out to his family, who I know he loves so very much. This is a heartbreaking situation that I feel very personally. My hopes and prayers are with him."

Gary Lewi, of Howard Rubenstein Associates in New York, worked with Levin in the early 1980s on D'Amato's senate staff. "It is not an understatement to say he was brilliant," he said. "He was one of those amazingly talented people who could have done anything he wanted in the private sector, but instead chose public service."

Levin had gone to the World Trade Center Tuesday morning to attend a breakfast meeting, Lewi said.

Prior to serving as Pataki's banking superintendent, Levin was a vice president at Goldman Sachs, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York and a trustee of Hofstra University, where he earned his law degree.

Levin's mother said he had graduated from Woodmere Academy, Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and earned an MBA from C.W. Post, in addition to his law degree. "I'm very proud of him," she said.

Levin is married to television reporter Christie Ferer, who owns a media production company called Vidicom. He has two stepdaughters, Caitlin, 16, and Alli, 15, Ferer said. "I am still hoping that he will be found."

Mary Voboril contributed to this story.