Twin Towers Love Story's Sad End

By Ann L. Kim | STAFF WRITER

September 17, 2001

The friendship that would later blossom into marriage began about 15 years ago at a copy machine in the offices of what was then Dean Witter, somewhere around the 60th floor of Tower Two of the World Trade Center.

Andrew Stern was a trader and his future wife had just begun a job as a sales assistant. Both were from Long Island - he from Lynbrook, she, Merrick.

"My first couple of days, all I was doing was making photocopies," Katie Stern recalled yesterday. "I remember he used to always come over to the copy machine with a stack of papers and we would talk. We became good friends."

Such good friends that Andrew Stern risked his mother's anger when he skipped out on his father's birthday dinner for a first date on March 28, 1987.

Tuesday, Stern was working on the 104th floor of Tower One when a hijacked passenger jet slammed into it at 8:45 a.m. "Our life started there and unfortunately ended with those towers," Katie Stern said.

Andrew Stern worked as a broker in the municipal bond department of Cantor Fitzgerald, a firm that lost an estimated 700 employees.

Stern's body was recovered from the collapsed remains of the building, and Nassau County police officers arrived at the Sterns' Bellmore home at midnight Friday with the news.

"As odd as it sounds, we were all somewhat relieved when they found him," said Stern's sister, Lisa Burch, of Brooklyn. The family had filed a missing-person's report and made the rounds of city hospitals with his photo.

Stern was an athletic man, up by 4 a.m. for a workout at the gym before arriving at his desk by 7:30. He enjoyed the challenges of his job and had worked on Wall Street since his graduation from Hofstra University in 1982. He graduated from East Rockaway High School in 1978.

He made it a priority to be home from work in the evenings to be with his two children. He helped coach the Little League team of his 7-year-old son, Danny, and the two often went to Yankees games. Stern was looking forward to what would have been 4-year-old Emma's start in soccer on Saturday.

Stern liked to work around the house, proudly showing friends and family the new driveway he completed or a yard project. "He was just a wonderful, wonderful person," his wife said. "I fell more in love with him every year."

In addition to his wife, two children and sister, Stern is survived by his mother, Barbara Stern of Lynbrook, and a brother, Michael Stern of Ridge.

Services will be today at 11:30 a.m. at Boulevard Riverside Chapel in Hewlett, with burial following at Nassau Knolls Cemetery in Port Washington.